We all know, use and love Google Street View. The trusted program takes Street View inside. We come to your business with specialized equipment to produce 360 spherical panoramas allowing web visitors to look all around as if they were there. With proprietary software from Google we link these together into a virtual walk-through of your business, from the front entrance to as much coverage inside as you like.

Your Virtual Tour will appear in Google Search and Google Maps. It gives internet users a virtual walk-through allowing you to showcase all the details of your business. Sort of "try before you buy" that customers love. The service is perfect for restaurants, retail shops, automobile dealerships, doctors, dentists, lawyers, gyms, salons, and so much more. If you have made any effort to create a business environment to impress customers this is the perfect way to impress them even before they visit in person.

You can embed the Virtual Tour on your website or Facebook page just as you would a Google Map. However, you may want to take advantage of our more advanced custom tour which can add sound, text, interactive elements and much more to create an even more immersive, persuasive experience. A custom tour can also feature people whereas a Google tour shouldn't. Any faces in a Google tour must be blurred and in some cases no people are allowed at all. Luckily we can provide both types of tours.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization -- optimizing a website to improve its ranking on search engines. The higher your site appears in search results the more likely people are to click through to the site itself. Our custom tours have a significant impact on search ranking. Google tours have less although they do increase "time on page," if given some prominence, which influences ranking. Google tours can significantly increase the click-through rates from the search results to a website, which also helps search ranking.

Google also has Local Search Results (e.g.. "dentists in Chicago"). A small selection with mini-map appears in the search results. Click that and you get a full map, much more extensive local listings and much more information about each business including the virtual tour, if there is one. Here Google Virtual Tours may influence ranking. More importantly it doubles your impact with Google searchers. (See "Is a Google Virtual Tour Worth It? Does It Work?")

The cost of the shoot depends on the size of your business but generally ranges between $300 and $1,500. Each location can have anywhere from 1-40 panorama steps or "photosphere", sometimes even more. Each photosphere can be about 15 feet apart. $300 covers 2 panoramas inside of your business plus three required positions starting outside your front entrance. For a small shop that may be all you need. From there the pricing goes up depending on:

• The Number of photospheres (your choice from minimal to complete coverage)
• Business Floor Plan
• Special Marketing Requests
• Additional still photography, if desired
• Discounts are offered for multiple locations and re-shoots (seasonal changes or remodel, for example)

Each photo shoot location will be quoted before the shoot is scheduled. The fee is collected at the time of the shoot. The business owner or decision maker will need to sign a standard release form.

The cost is one time, nothing additional. The business owner gets full access to and use of the virtual tour. The tour can be embedded on your website, Facebook or blog. If you ever want the tour removed you can do that. If you would like an updated shoot to reflect seasonal changes, new features, a remodeling or whatever it can be arranged as an additional shoot at a discount.

Two important studies say "yes!"

• Online survey of 1201 consumers who searched Google for restaurants or hotels. They were presented with versions of search results with and without virtual tours.
  
  
  • Those who viewed a listing with a virtual tour were twice as likely to be interested in booking a reservation
    
    
  • 18-34 year-olds were 2.3 times as likely to book when a tour was offered
    
    
  • Two out of three people want more virtual tours
    
    


• NYC Restaurant Week website: 55% of participating restaurants included a Google virtual tour.
  
  
  • On average, restaurant listings that included a Google virtual tour had a 30% higher click through to reservations
    
    
  • Visitors who viewed the virtual tour for a given business clicked through to make a reservation 50% of the time (20% more than visitors who didn't view the tour)
    
    
  • 84% of 1,300 surveyed customers said the Google virtual tour played a factor in their restaurant choice
    
    

Google and custom virtual tours both have advantages. For many businesses using both is actually best. We will help you determine which one is better for you, or both, and how to allocate budget to best meet your needs.

Relative Strengths:

If enough of your message is conveyed with the Google tour remember that you can embed it in your web page. That improves your website effectiveness and has some effect on search engine results. A custom tour significantly improves your site's organic SEO ranking in all search engines. Of course, Google tours and photos still produce better results throughout Google, including in local searches. Many companies choose to do both for maximum impact.

Only a Google certified "Trusted Photographer" such as Scott Witte of Tour de Force 60VR can provide this service. Scott has won major awards for both his virtual tour productions and advertising still photography. He brings both to play when creating the most effective experiential media for you. Especially valuable is our ability to produce both a Google Virtual Tour and a more advanced Website tour for you and persuasive still photography. This maximizes your search visibility and interaction and the effectiveness of your marketing message once people get to your site.

For a free consultation and estimate please call Scott at (414) 345-9660 or