If you’re new to Street View photography to enhance your Local Search (local SEO) chops, there are some good ways to embrace this and learn while enhancing Google My Business (GMB) profiles. Seriously! If you’ve already mastered this, hopefully this will give you some additional insights. Here are 7 tips to improve your Google My Business (GMB) Street-View and virtual tour (VT) photography skills.

• Practice, practice, practice. If you’re just starting you need 50 Google published 360° Street View photos. Once you’ve done this, it can take a good month or so to be added to their Street View For Hire page. Here’s the app for you to get started.
• Keep your clients informed from the start. The more knowledge they have benefits everyone. Whether it’s for interior VTs for showcasing navigation inside their location, or external 360° photos to imply directions to them helps them determine their strategy.
• Remember the sun. This seems obvious, but a bright sun can reduce photo quality no matter what camera you use. I recently had a great exterior view towards the south. It was noon and had to delete the 360° because I couldn’t escape the bright rays.
• Charge up beforehand. If you’re using a Ricoh Theta V or similar 360° camera, the battery can run low fast if you’re taking a lot of photos… at least in a Minnesota winter. It’s always a good idea to bring a laptop and external charger to charge both your 360° camera and smartphone. This has saved me more than once.
• For stills, don’t be afraid of Portrait mode. As much as I absolutely despise iStocky type photos, focusing in front while blurring the background can work if it’s obvious that the photos taken are real and of the location. Example:

Real Optometry Instruments at a Local Clinic

• Add descriptions to each still photo. The photos themselves can be very compelling, but adding a description can help you tell a story for them, or imply directions and specific entrances to a building.
• Transfer photo rights! This is a selling point for me. Just like any business or organization should 100% own their website, they should also own their GMB photos. Example:

Partial Screenshot of a 360 photo showing ODG as the owner

The photo name still comes up as myself, although the important photo credit belongs to ODG.

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LocalMN provides Google trusted Street View photography as well as local search consulting and implementation. Contact us to learn more.