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Google gets 96% of all smartphone search traffic,[2] and over a billion people use Google Maps™ every month,[3][4] the most popular mapping service in the world,[5][6] with over 10 billion downloads.[7][8]
What that means is that your Google Maps profile is absolutely crucial toward your goal of bringing more people into your store!
Think about it: Are you really satisfied with your current Google Maps profile? (Do you even have one?!) Is it really more inviting to potential customers, compared to everyone else's?
You've poured your heart and soul into your shop's interior. And the best photo that Google could provide is a small, distorted exterior shot taken from a moving Street View™ car, sometimes not even covering your front door? This is what the public will see when they're considering a visit to your store?
As you're obviously already well aware, your Google Maps presence is a critical part of your overall Google strategy. Your basic entry contains key information such as your business name, address, phone number, business type, (e.g., "Pizza Restaurant"), pictures of your offerings, and of course, your location on the Map. When you claim your entry with Google, you can have more control, such as the ability to update your store hours, and publicly respond to consumer reviews.
First introduced in 2007,[9] Google Maps Street View displays a picture of your store from the street, often taken by a car that's fitted with special 360° cameras.[10] Google also uses aerial photography and LiDAR technology to build a very precise, three-dimensional model of your store's neighborhood, allowing an even more immersive view.[11]
In FutureQuarter FutureYear, (FutureQDescr) 4Q 2022, (Fourth Quarter, i.e., Oct/Nov/Dec), Google Trusted Photographers™, such as myself, will be capturing businesses in LocStatePart (LocStatePartAbbrev) Northeast Pennsylvania (NEPA) to continue and extend the Google Maps Street View experience inside buildings![12] This means that many businesses all over your neighborhood (including your competitors) will soon be displaying blue dots on the Map, inviting consumers to view connected interior 360° photographs, letting them take Virtual Tours of those businesses.
These blue dots are revealed by clicking on the yellow "Pegman" icon in the lower right corner of the Maps website, or by tapping the Layers button in the upper right corner of the smartphone app, and then selecting Street View.
Select any blue dot or line to reveal the 360° photograph.Virtual Tour navigation inside is identical to how Street View works outside: Drag to pan and tilt, reverse pinch or mouse-wheel to zoom, and select arrows to advance to the next view. Here; you can try it right now with one of my clients, Balance Yoga & Wellness in Kingston, PA:
"BAM! ... A bit of color ... [it's] really fun and exciting!"
Rose Apodaca
Co-Owner, A+R Store
As you already know, Google ranks businesses on many factors, and one of those includes how much time visitors spend interacting with your content.[13] A Virtual Tour on Street View is a great way to engage visitors, without the hassle and cost of having to constantly update the content.
After searching for a local business on a mobile device, 88% of consumers will interact with that business within 24 hours,[14] 75% end up visiting the store within a day,[15] and 28% of those searches result in a purchase.[16] Now, according to Google, listings with photos and a Virtual Tour are twice as likely to generate interest.[17] Radisson Hotels tested using Virtual Tours, compared to sales pages without, and measured a 135% increase in revenue, or $7,200 per month... per hotel![18]
To state the painfully obvious: More customers means more income, and isn't this why you went into business in the first place... to become fabulously wealthy? Or maybe at least earn enough to have the security to be able to take good care of your family? Take a look at that picture of them right now; aren't they worth a minor investment of only a penny a month per square foot? Look into those eyes... they're counting on you!!
Click this NOW:What you can expect when you book your FREE photography session with me: Appointments are typically scheduled as two-hour arrival windows, and I pride myself on my timeliness. You'll probably want to ensure that everything is tidy and presentable, and that no financial or other sensitive records are visible. We'll sign a one-page agreement. (Don't worry; it's written in plain English. And yes, I'm happy to email you a copy in advance.) I'll help you to claim your business's Google Business Listing (at no additional charge) if you haven't already done this.
Using a 360° camera, I'll take a photo or two outside your main door, and then spend most of my time inside your storefront. Usually, no one should be visible in each area as it's photographed, although that's not always possible. I cover roughly 2,000 square feet per hour. You don't pay me anything while I'm there.
"Here we have the opportunity to take this unique experience and put it out to the general public.... If they can walk through it and see it, it's amazing!
People are commenting on it ; we're getting a great customer experience, without having to bring the customer right into our store."
Thom Curry, Owner
Temecula Olive Oil Co.
After I leave your shop, I will identify the best photographs, merge multiple photos taken at different exposures, ensure that everything is precisely level with the horizon, correct lighting and color, blur out faces and any other privacy concerns, (unless you want to appear and we have a signed model release), ensure proper stitching, adjust the nadir, further improve quality with AI software, double-check the metadata, correct location data, (since GPS doesn't work very well inside), correct photo orientation, connect photos to each other so as to trace a path through your shop, and finally publish everything to Google Maps. (Whew!) Then we wait days, or sometimes even weeks, for Google to accept the submission and make it visible to the world.
Plus, as a FREE bonus, I'm also now including a Walkthrough Video, a $99 value. Google's Street View lets a visitor decide how they want to progress through each step of your Virtual Tour, whereas a Walkthrough Video is a more conventional, noninteractive video that you'll be able to share on social media. I'll use some or all of the exact same 360° photographs to give the viewer a sense of walking through your business location, even though in the video, the actual path will be at my (or your) discretion. You don't owe me anything until your Virtual Tour is publicly available on Google Maps, and you are 100% satisfied with everything! Google does have the right to reject some or even all of the photographs, although it's actually very rare that this happens when they are published by a Google Trusted Photographer.
I'm not one who likes to talk about myself, but just by way of introduction: I was teaching Computer Science at Rutgers University at the age of 18 in '83, I've been in the online marketing space since I founded note.com in '95,[19] and I was certified as a Google Trusted Photographer in '18.[20] I keep saying that views (by themselves) don't really mean anything, and yet, I've still managed to attract over 32 million views in total for all of my clients.[21] While I obviously can't guarantee any specific results for any given business, I'm pretty excited that the Williamsport Arby's alone saw over a million views from my work, and a half a million views for the Poughkeepsie Scotch Bonnet.[22]
And you know the Big G lawyers make me say this: I am not an employee of, or otherwise represent, Google.
Well...
"We've seen a clear 20-to-25 percent jump in direct impressions as a result of local searches."
ustin Bonatto
Marketing Just Food for Dogs
Oh, I'm not done with the complete list of benefits to you!... No, no, no... Not even close!!...
Watch this Quick 1:23 Video Where Five Real Merchants Share the Direct Impact of Their Virtual Tours!
So let me recap here: I'm offering to come out and take full 360° photographs of your entire store, perform all necessary post-processing, and publish your Virtual Tour to Google Maps Street View. I'm including all of the freebies: the Walkthrough Video, (a $99 value), help in claiming your Google Maps Profile if necessary, the white paper, etc., etc. Most photographers charge hundreds, or even thousands of dollars for this service. (I normally charge $250 per 1,000 sq ft, myself!) When you book your appointment through this page, I'm going to do all of this for you for FREE, and only ask for a minimal fee of $0.01/month per square foot to cover basic hosting expenses.