Google 360 – The New Requirement for Local SEO for Your Business

The world is evolving faster than ever. Today, we can find and get anything without even having to step outside our house. Convenience is at our fingertips. The way we discover, experience, and learn about things has rapidly evolved with the advent of virtual reality. 

And Google is at the forefront of this technology. Its virtual tour, more particularly, Google 360 has become essential for businesses. 

To begin with, let’s dive deeper into Google 360

This is an interactive virtual simulation or experience featured on your business’s Google My Business listing. These 360-degree images are captured and constructed by verified and trusted Google photographers. 

Essentially, pictures of your business will be captured by the photographer and then stitched together to produce high-resolution panoramic images. This way a virtual tour to your store or business is created which provides a one-of-a-kind experience to your users. This is uploaded on your GMB profile which can be accessed by anyone searching you on Google. While the virtual tour in itself is very beneficial, Google in order to promote businesses to add 360 images in their GMB rewards the businesses with higher SERP rankings. To think about it, Google ranks websites higher if they provide a better customer experience. With virtual tours, you are essentially improving the customer experience. So, in a nutshell, Google 360 is beneficial in several ways for your business.

Creating a virtual tour of your business does not take much time. It starts with a photoshoot which takes only a few hours. Editing is what takes some time. Here, all the photographs are stitched together to create a virtual experience. Once that is done, it is published on the listing.  

It seems simple, right? 

The truth is that the process of creating a virtual tour of your business involves very little hassle. Still, a lot of businesses do not post these on their Google listings and miss out on all the advantages. But why is that? 

Chiefly, it is because of minimal knowledge about the same. Creating a virtual tour is convenient and cost-effective so it is not something that requires a lot of resources. So, the reason bogs down to people not having adept knowledge about this type of content and how beneficial it is with respect to digital marketing especially local SEO. So, whether you are a professional marketer or a business owner, it is something you should know. 

Here is why your business needs Google 360

Adding a virtual tour to your Google My Business will increase trust in your brand. It will give you an identity and help users understand that you are a legit business. There is a way that our brain functions. We tend to believe what we see more than what we hear. So, show them your business rather than just telling them. 

Especially if your business requires them to see the site, this is the perfect way you can give your users a glimpse of what they get. Also, local people will also be able to relate to your business and give their trust. This is the transparency that every user looks for. 

When it comes to search engine optimization, Google prefers businesses that keep the customer experience their priority. There are a lot of ranking factors that influence your website’s position on the search engine page results. We have conclusive evidence suggesting that a business with a virtual tour in the GMB ranks higher than other businesses. 

This may be because Google is trying to encourage and promote businesses to add virtual tours in GMB so as to provide a better customer experience. And not just that, businesses with Google 360 have better chances of ranking in the local park. We believe that with virtual tours, people will spend more time looking at images on the Google listing. This basically signals Google that they are interested in the business which influences its algorithm to rank the website higher for other users to see. 

That is why Google 360 is really good for local SEO. And it is something that any business owner or digital marketer should not ignore.

As an online business, you must understand the importance of CTR (click-through rate). The better the CTR, the more traffic you will have and in turn get more conversions. That is why CTR is highly regarded in any SEO strategy. So, what practice do you do for your business to increase click-through rates? 

While there are several things you can implement, Google 360 is one of the effective ways you can improve with minimal hassle. And you don’t need to have adept knowledge about digital marketing to understand that Google wants websites to improve customer experience and any practice that they feel does that, they consider it as a ranking factor. If not today, then tomorrow. To put things into perspective, high-quality photos published on a Google listing considerably improves the CTR. Google itself suggests businesses do the same. So, why not go one step ahead and give your users a virtual experience with Google 360 on your business listing. Essentially, you need to understand that Google 360 gives you an opportunity to keep your leg up on the competition that is yet to implement virtual tours in their GMBs.

Google considers your business successful and trustworthy on the basis of several factors. One of which is the number of time users spend on your listing. This means that if a user spends more time reading your GMB, Google will consider that you are providing value to your customer and they want to know more about you. This way it will consider your business to be one that people want. This is not us hypothesizing but facts with anecdotal evidence. 

Basically, if you have virtual tours in your GMBs, the customers will spend more time. This will give Google a positive signal about your business and will rank you higher on SERPs for the respective keyword. So, do not ever think that virtual tours or Google 360 are simply for aesthetics. The truth is that it helps your business in more ways than you believe. Especially today, it has become a crucial factor for a business to improve their search engine optimization strategy. 

If you think about it, a Google virtual tour will boost engagement rates. It is an interactive tool that keeps users engaged and will end up spending more time on the listing than usual. As a business owner, you want more traffic, better conversion, and a low bounce rate. With Google virtual tour, you can achieve all of them. It will keep users on your website longer and will improve the bounce rate. For this reason, Google will naturally show your listing to other people.

Analytics is something every business owner must master to achieve success. It helps you understand what is working for your business and what is not. Data shows you exactly what is keeping your customers engaged and what they actually like. Using this data, you can improve your service, product, marketing campaigns, and whatnot. What we mean is that it is something you should not ignore. 

This is what makes Google so powerful. You can learn a lot about your business by simply seeing what your users are engaging with. So, implement Google 360 in your Google My Business listing and see what people are watching. It will give you a glimpse of what they want and where you need to focus your energy. 

Using Google My Business insights, you can track how many people viewed and clicked on which photo. It basically tells you how well your Google 360 is performing. Keep in mind that you need to claim your listing otherwise you won’t be able to view any analytics. 

The best part is that Google 360 will not take you back by thousands of dollars. It is a form of passive marketing which means that once you get it updated, you don’t have to worry about it again. It is a one-time investment that will give you the results you desire without any hassles. So, do not worry about going over budget. Once you get your place photographed and it is updated on your listing, it will stay there and serve as an off-site tour of your business. Then you can focus on other important aspects of your business.

Require a Google 360 Videographer? Contact 405 Ads for help finding one near you.

In a nutshell, you need to jump-start your marketing campaign with Google 360. It has quickly become an essential part of local SEO. The good thing is that not a lot of businesses understand this. So, this is the right time to get ahead of your competitors and improve your rankings. 

If there is one way you can improve the authority of your listing in the eyes of Google is to show them that you provide your users with a quality experience. You can do this by providing them one with a kind off-site virtual tour. Keep in mind that your business listing is most times the first thing that people discover about your company. 

So, if you want to attract users and keep them engaged, utilize the technology that you can access and implement without much hassle. If you use it effectively, there is no limit to your business’s success.