First of all, Happy New Year! I hope you had a fun and safe New Year, and all the best wishes for you in this new decade.
In 2010, 360 photos and virtual tours really didn’t exist. In fact, Google My Business (GMB) listings didn’t launch until June, 2014. The Rochester Post-Bulletin even recognized this in a piece written in August, 2017.
When searching for businesses, consumers use mapping products 44% of the time
Listings with photos and a virtual tour are twice as likely to generate interest
On average, 41% of these place searches result in an on-site visit
A brief overview of Google 360 Street View Trusted Pro Photographers:
Have you used this as a consumer? If so, you may have gotten great visuals of inside a location, implied directions, or compelling photos enticing you to visit their door. Maybe a show at First Avenue?
You can easily bring your location to life, and this is just one part of Google My Business that can help.
Here’s to you! Happy 2020, and all the best in using Google tools to help benefit your business or organization.
Localmn Interactive offers Google Street View Photography services with plenty of knowledge, experience, and local search strategies.
https://localmn.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/guthrie.png6001360Paul Jahnhttps://localmn.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screenshot-2017-05-02-at-6.30.33-AM.pngPaul Jahn2020-01-01 03:00:152020-01-01 03:21:19Happy 2020! Showcase Your Google Listings with 360 Photos and Virtual Tours
Google has taken another step to take your local marketing efforts easier and more streamlined this 2019 Summer with their new local marketing kit. This ties in nicely in your Google My Business (GMB) profile.
Create custom posters, social posts, and more from reviews and highlights on your Business Profile on Google. All for free.
From the new Google Marketing Kit
In addition, it provides video and promotion options.
This Google-provided video is currently pretty cheesy, yet gives options including easily embedding the YouTube video within your content such as this blog. As of yet, I don’t know if you can customize this.
Another new opportunity is pre-made (social) Google Posts. They also give you the option to share these on social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, plus a downloading option for you to share wherever in your content you feel relevant.
The current examples they seem to have are a bit generic, but I see them useful for filler Google Posts. My mind may change tomorrow, although I don’t see these as useful for Facebook and Twitter. I’d rather see updates that tell more of a story. But maybe that’s just me. Example:
Google Social Images
If you’re a restaurant, hotel, or any other business prone to potential positive reviews, this is certainly worth filler posts.
At an enterprise level with multiple listings, this opportunity is a must with proper management. For stand alone local businesses, I have a couple reservations.
The best (or worst) part of it is that Google owns all the data. Yep, they still own the local search content you provide. For this, they even own the analytics although they show you an overview in your GMB panel. I only imagine that they use all of this to help calculate your overall authority in the results, and indirectly, your rankings in the local 3-pack.
Google does get info for these based on both content you provide in your own free Google My Business (GMB) profile combined with ratings or your organization.
New Small Thanks with Google Replacement?
I was a huge fan of the Small Thanks with Google Site that gave you free posters to showcase the positive things customers say about you, but the site’s now down. There’s no redirect and is now just a broken 404 page. The above-mentioned Google local marketing kit seems to be the replacement along with the other opportunities.
Google has a pretty strict policy regarding obtaining user reviews, and a lot of fantastic articles have been written regarding this. In a nutshell, soliciting positive reviews is bad. Reminding people they can leave honest reviews is good. Google is now showcasing the latter with new window decals.
Review us on Google
Have you or your company/organization used the Google Local Marketing kit yet? We’d love to hear your experiences!
https://localmn.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/featured-image.png312835Paul Jahnhttps://localmn.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screenshot-2017-05-02-at-6.30.33-AM.pngPaul Jahn2019-06-24 00:52:292019-06-25 23:50:17New Google Local Marketing Kit for the Summer of 2019
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.
Thoughts? Comment here or let us know via Facebook or Twitter!
LocalMN provides Google trusted Street View photography as well as local search consulting and implementation. Contact us to learn more.
https://localmn.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/google-maps-icons-e1542950074331.png220800Paul Jahnhttps://localmn.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screenshot-2017-05-02-at-6.30.33-AM.pngPaul Jahn2019-01-24 01:24:072019-01-24 21:33:217 Tips to Enhance 360° and Still Photos for Google My Business (GMB) Profiles
This makes your time more valuable by having someone come out to immediately verify your business to GMB, take photos and 360° virtual tours, consult you with Google Posts, GMB Insights. So often, people will set up their GMB correctly and adequately, although don’t take full advantage of this free tool for you DIYers. For agencies, we’re looking to add this to your mix for local search services.
When we come out to visit your Twin Cities location, we come with these ready-to-use icons, literally right on the Google Pixel 2:
We forté in being flexible. If you just need GMB verification, we do this. If you need verification plus setup, photos, 360° Virtual Tours, Google Posts insights, and overall GMB consulting, we also do this, and we do it well.
4-hour consultations for you and your business (at your location) are available for this and is definitely time well spent. From there, you can decide to hire us on a more permanent level or go your own way with the confidence to DIY.
Side note: This is proudly available for physical businesses and organizations in Minnesota. Transportation expenses outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area TBD. We are Minnesota.
Contact us Minnesota, and lets get verified! Skål!
https://localmn.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screenshot-2017-05-02-at-6.30.33-AM.png00Paul Jahnhttps://localmn.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screenshot-2017-05-02-at-6.30.33-AM.pngPaul Jahn2018-11-23 01:40:312018-11-26 01:05:16We're Now Google Trusted Verified!
