Does Google 360 picture improves ranking?

[NielsNeumann]

Hello

From your experience, does posting 360 photos in GBP affect the ranking?

 

[dgrunited]

I am very sorry to contradict you, but your answer is not totally correct. IF only posted in the GBP yes.....
BUT
I have several customers whose local standing proves the opposite!
However, you have to consider certain basics:
1. the tour must be created by a certified agency or photographer in order for the pano shots (individual photographs) to be claimed by GBP as a photograph by the client.
2. the tour must be prominently embedded on the client's landing page via an iframe so that every visitor sees it and engages with it.
3. optimally, the tour is extended with an interactive layer that uses the previously identified keywords as navigation points and connects the links to the corresponding content on the site.

Now that many visitors to the site are engaged with the tour, each interaction (technically, viewing individual photos) is tracked as a call to a photo by the customer.

This has a big impact.

Here an example:

ZERO ZERO Baden

RECORD STORE in Baden, Vinyl Schallplatten & CD. Neu und Second Hand. An- und Verkauf. Zur interaktiven Tour PURPLE HAZE, 26. Oktober 2024, ROYAL BADEN, 20.00 Uhr Dear Music Lovers and Dancers Nach einer Pause von einem Jahr ! (unglaublich wie die Zeit saust), am 26. Okt. endlich wieder PURPLE...

zerozero.ch

added you will find the statistics of this particular customer as well as his standing for the main keyword. When i started with him, he was nowhere
This is only one example of quite some with the same outcome.

Best regards
Bernhard

This website Zero Zero – Vinyl und CD is lovely. I see the logic behind what you've done. Keep it up man. I'm curious to know how you did this:

...interactive layer that uses the previously identified keywords as navigation points and connects the links to the corresponding content...

 

[whitespark]

Hi @Bernhard. I am interested in your example here. I skimmed over your fight with @keyserholiday because DRAMA, so I'm sorry if you've already explained this, but I'm wondering:

Between the time that you added the 360 photo, and the time that you noticed the ranking improvement. Were there ANY other changes to the Google Profile, the website, or reviews? In other words, are you able to isolate the 360 from any other SEO activities in such a way that you can guarantee that the only thing that could have impacted the rankings was the 360? Or, were there other things that could have potentially also contributed to the ranking improvements?

Thanks!

 

[Bernhard]

This website Zero Zero – Vinyl und CD is lovely. I see the logic behind what you've done. Keep it up man. I'm curious to know how you did this:

...interactive layer that uses the previously identified keywords as navigation points and connects the links to the corresponding content...

Dear @dgrunited Thank you very much for your kind words. The base is the Google streetview trusted tour that has been shot according to the wishes from my customer to represent his business best by a certified photographer i work with.
Then after stitching and uploading to Google. We use gothru for the interactive part depending of the customers most valuables keywords. Those keywords i get via a classic keyword search.

 

[Bernhard]

Hi @Bernhard. I am interested in your example here. I skimmed over your fight with @keyserholiday because DRAMA, so I'm sorry if you've already explained this, but I'm wondering:

Between the time that you added the 360 photo, and the time that you noticed the ranking improvement. Were there ANY other changes to the Google Profile, the website, or reviews? In other words, are you able to isolate the 360 from any other SEO activities in such a way that you can guarantee that the only thing that could have impacted the rankings was the 360? Or, were there other things that could have potentially also contributed to the ranking improvements?

Thanks!

my apologizes for the DRAMA, this was certainly not in my interest! As i wrote i am swiss and therefore my english is (and i am well aware about that) not so good. I also tried several times to deescalate but if i get bullied i am not that kind of person that just shuts up and give up.
Please accept my apologizes for this sad and unnecessary DRAMA :-(

Now to answer your questions:
As i already told mike, he does not want that i may really care for his local SEO, not even citations have been made. All we did here was that interactive Tour and filled out the basics in the, then, GMB. But only the really basics. The only that happened over time where the raising number of good reviews that i answer for him. But also here, He dont do a proper Review management and the raise from very few to now roundabout 100 per location endured 6 years. The tour was reshot and remade and was added one year ago by a redesign of his former site (Old but similar Tour was already included) when he had around 20 less than at this point. No other points else was done. Which is not more than in the previous years when we first verified his 2 GMB Profiles and shot the (at that time) streetview trusted from his locations. So also the reviews havent raised more in the last time than before.
Naturaly i can NOT guarantee but it is the same with all my clients with this kind of interactive tour integrated in their Landingpage.

 

[dgrunited]

Dear @dgrunited Thank you very much for your kind words. The base is the Google streetview trusted tour that has been shot according to the wishes from my customer to represent his business best by a certified photographer i work with.
Then after stitching and uploading to Google. We use gothru for the interactive part depending of the customers most valuables keywords. Those keywords i get via a classic keyword search.

Thank you for your helpfulness I appreciate that. Your creativity is simply spectacular

#kipidup (don't look for a translation for this)

 

[Bernhard]

Those are not his business names. He can't have one website and 2 GBP with different names. His name is and needs to be Zero Zero. Please read Google's guidelines on how to represent your business name. I am a Google Business Product Expert and the unofficial sheriff of Google.

Again, I am trying to educate you and others that things are more than they appear. You haven't been able to prove the point that 360 tours help rankings at all. I need to run along now as I have a lot of keyword-stuffed businesses to report.

I had a good laugh when i opened my dashboard this morning You are REALLY the "sheriff"...... I hope that you have some other hobbies than being a bully. But tbh, i dont react, as you mentioned i will leave it until the new sites are online with the correct Impressums. And in the same time i have a good idea that you brought me too: First i didnt want to make a gallery on the site, but now i think i will insert some pictures with his store's name... as used in his documents
This is a very good oportunity to see if the ranking changes for the keyword Plattenladen AS YOU CLAIM! Looking forward to update you in 2 weeks

Before i forget it, just have a GOOD look at the following SIGNAGE!!! Maybe it would help to get the facts first, before acusing others of violating the Guidelines!

 

[keyserholiday]

I had a good laugh when i opened my dashboard this morning You are REALLY the "sheriff"...... I hope that you have some other hobbies than being a bully. But tbh, i dont react, as you mentioned i will leave it until the new sites are online with the correct Impressums. And in the same time i have a good idea that you brought me too: First i didnt want to make a gallery on the site, but now i think i will insert some pictures with his store's name... as used in his documents
This is a very good oportunity to see if the ranking changes for the keyword Plattenladen AS YOU CLAIM! Looking forward to update you in 2 weeks

Before i forget it, just have a GOOD look at the following SIGNAGE!!! Maybe it would help to get the facts first, before acusing others of violating the Guidelines!

I am trying to understand what all has taken place to increase rankings. Please help me by answering the following questions.
1. What was the name of the business profile when you took over?
2. Did you change it to become zero zero vinyl und cd?
3. You told Mike that you optimized the business profile too, what updates did you make?

If you can answer those questions then I can understand what impacted the rankings.

 

[Bernhard]

1. we did not took over, it was in 2016 when to 2 profiles have been verified. As i worked then for a streetview trusted agency as salesman i had nothing to do with the further administrative actions.
I left the company and after a short period for another company i started my own business and he wanted to be my client as he was always taken care by me. At that time, if i remember correct the name has been changed. For Zürich to Zero Zero Rare Groove and for Baden to Zero Zero CD & Vinyl Because the old agency did not put in his correct names. BTW the same as my own old Webmaster who did not pay enough attention to correlate informations also on my own website (Unfortunately i have not taken enough care for myself as for this customer)
All i did was putting in the GBP description, the opening hours and since he is my customer i answer the incoming reviews and update the special holidays as well as the informations regarding Covid for example.

Now i got a new supplier for Web-related services and we already updated my own site and are now redesigning the website of zero zero Baden and creating a new one for Zürich with its own interactive tour.
What i forgot to mention: it is important to know that he is since decades in the offline world as zero zero Rare Groove and zero zero CD & Vinyl (as you have seen in the signage).

 

[Bernhard]

I am trying to understand what all has taken place to increase rankings. Please help me by answering the following questions.
1. What was the name of the business profile when you took over?
2. Did you change it to become zero zero vinyl und cd?
3. You told Mike that you optimized the business profile too, what updates did you make?

If you can answer those questions then I can understand what impacted the rankings.

But i really want to leave the name now as you changed it until the new sites with all correct wordings will be online. I estimate this in a timeframe of about 2 weeks.
This will be a very good opportunity to see IF there will be any changes in the ranking or not and IF what kind as i have a brand new local scan that i attached in one of the replies.
Really looking forward for the outcome.

BTW i have a local scan for his store in Zürich with the keyword Plattenladen. You can clearly see that there he has not the same strong standing as in Baden or compared to "Plattenladen Zürich"
Also here, as we have no further Local SEO optimisation, it will be very interesting to see the changement in the future after the new site with the tour is online.

 

[keyserholiday]

1. we did not took over, it was in 2016 when to 2 profiles have been verified. As i worked then for a streetview trusted agency as salesman i had nothing to do with the further administrative actions.
I left the company and after a short period for another company i started my own business and he wanted to be my client as he was always taken care by me. At that time, if i remember correct the name has been changed. For Zürich to Zero Zero Rare Groove and for Baden to Zero Zero CD & Vinyl Because the old agency did not put in his correct names. BTW the same as my own old Webmaster who did not pay enough attention to correlate informations also on my own website (Unfortunately i have not taken enough care for myself as for this customer)
All i did was putting in the GBP description, the opening hours and since he is my customer i answer the incoming reviews and update the special holidays as well as the informations regarding Covid for example.

Now i got a new supplier for Web-related services and we already updated my own site and are now redesigning the website of zero zero Baden and creating a new one for Zürich with its own interactive tour.
What i forgot to mention: it is important to know that he is since decades in the offline world as zero zero Rare Groove and zero zero CD & Vinyl (as you have seen in the signage).

So you did change the name from Zero Zero to Zero Zero CD & Vinyl when you started optimizing the business profile? That is a pretty significant update and will dramatically impact rankings. There is no way to prove that the 360 tour increased the rankings alone. Is it possible for you to furnish a case study of increased rankings without changing a business name to add keywords to the business name?

It's also challenging when there are reviews with keywords in them like these:
Review 1
Review 2
Review 3
Review 4

There are too many outside factors at play to complicate matters. I am not here to argue with you, I am trying to understand what all has transpired to see if the 360 tours do have an impact on rankings. I am not convinced as there are lot of things that can impact rankings that cloud the results here.

 

[Bernhard]

As i already wrote, we will have a very good case study with his shop in Zürich. Just wait until we see the results.
And with your change in the name of Baden, we have another indicator that can maybe give a hint.
My goal is and was never to convince you....as i wrote just something i have seen with my clients.

 

[keyserholiday]

Hallo Niels, bitte entschuldige die verspätete Antwort. Ich habe deine Frage übersehen.
Ja es gibt ein Beispiel eines meiner Kunden:
Und zwar das Umgekehrte. Ich habe ihm vor ein paar Jahren eine interaktive Tour auf seiner Seite erstellt. Vor 2 Jahren ist er an eine neue Adresse umgezogen und hat nur noch eine normale Streetview trusted tour erstellen lassen und diese in seine Website eingebunden.
Seither hat sich seine Range verkleinert. Leider hatte ich damals Local Falcon und jetzt Local Viking. An die alten Scans komme ich nicht mehr ran. Ich habe nur ein Scan vom Mai als er die Tour schon ein halbes Jahr gewechselt hatte. Man sieht aber doch dass sich sein Einzugsgebiet nochmals verringert hat. Der average Grid rank hat sich halbiert. Ob das jetzt NUR an der fehlenden interaktiven Tour liegt will ich nicht behaupten. Aber es passt halt in das Bild.
Aber GANZ wichtig, du darfst die Tour nicht selber erstellen und posten, denn dann wird diese als "Foto vom Eigentümer" identifiziert. Ich kann dir wirklich nur empfehlen eine zertifizierte Agentur zu suchen. Die Preise für diese Art Touren sind bei Weitem nicht mehr so hoch, wie noch vor ein paar Jahren.

Den Zusammenhang zwischen dem erhöhten Erhalt von Reviews und einer interaktiven Tour vermag ich weder zu bestätigen noch zu verneinen. Rein vom Bauchgefühl allerdings, denke ich eher nein, denn eine Bewertung erstellt man ja erst nach einer Erfahrung/Kauf vor Ort. Was die Tour aber auf jeden Fall macht, das konnte ich bei mehreren Kunden sehen, ist dass die Interaktion und Verweildauer enorm ansteigt, dass man dem potenziellen Kunden ohne grosse wall of text sehr zielgerichtet seine gesuchten Antworten geben kann und somit ggü. dem Wettbewerb einen Vorteil erringt.

lg Bernhard

One more question for zero zero, did you happen to change the category when you were making edits? Andi if so, what was the original category? Are you able to show the same results for their other profile in Zurich? That one has a 360 tour?

 

[Bernhard]

No categorie has not been changed, and for your second question, you see the answer to it in one of my previous posts.

 

[keyserholiday]

No categorie has not been changed, and for your second question, you see the answer to it in one of my previous posts.

The reason I asked is that I found a 3rd business profile that also has a 360 tour but the category is wrong. Also, the website URL is missing. I would love to see an example of increased rankings in a competitive city and for a business that does have the keyword in the business name. The bookstore example is in an area without any businesses to the north and I would expect to see all green. Do you have any examples where the keyword is not in the business name?

 

[Bernhard]

The bookstore is a REVERSE example and an answer to Niels to the question he asked me. This shop HAD an interactive Tour which he did replace with just the streetview trusted one . His average score fell down.
About the third profile, this store belonged to my customer in 2016 that's why he got a streetview tour, but was sold soon after and there i never did anything as the customer came with his then 2 shops to me. Therefore i dont know what the new owner has done with his GBP.
About the bookstore, i am very sorry that a bookstore is called bookstore in switzerland and tbh does zero zero rare groove has a keyword in its name? I already brought that up as an example which we will see in quite a short period as the site AND the interactive tour will be online very soon.

 

[keyserholiday]

I have reread all of Bernard’s replies and look into all of his examples. I can’t draw the same conclusions as him. All of his client examples have keywords added to the business and are in areas with no more than 2 orher similar businesses. I asked for examples in a competitive market and with out keywords being added to the business name. I was not provided that information. I asked about a zero zero profile with a the wrong category and with a 360 tour and I didn’t get an answer.

Based upon my experience and understanding of how local SEO works, I can’t find any evidence to support his claims. If your business can use a 360 tour, go for it, but don’t expect it to increase your rankings. Also posts, services and products don’t increase rankings.

 

[dgrunited]

I just got suspended from this forum for supporting @Bernhard's post. How very "professional". I had to make a formal complaint in order to be reinstated.

​

 

[Bernhard]

I just got suspended from this forum for supporting @Bernhard's post. How very "professional". I had to make a formal complaint in order to be reinstated.

​

I have seen it, lets talk private....had similar thoughts!

 

[keyserholiday]

I have seen it, lets talk private....had similar thoughts!

He didn’t get suspended for this thread. He was suspended by mistake as his activity seemed suspicious.

 

[NielsNeumann]

Hallo Niels, bitte entschuldige die verspätete Antwort. Ich habe deine Frage übersehen.
Ja es gibt ein Beispiel eines meiner Kunden:
Und zwar das Umgekehrte. Ich habe ihm vor ein paar Jahren eine interaktive Tour auf seiner Seite erstellt. Vor 2 Jahren ist er an eine neue Adresse umgezogen und hat nur noch eine normale Streetview trusted tour erstellen lassen und diese in seine Website eingebunden.
Seither hat sich seine Range verkleinert. Leider hatte ich damals Local Falcon und jetzt Local Viking. An die alten Scans komme ich nicht mehr ran. Ich habe nur ein Scan vom Mai als er die Tour schon ein halbes Jahr gewechselt hatte. Man sieht aber doch dass sich sein Einzugsgebiet nochmals verringert hat. Der average Grid rank hat sich halbiert. Ob das jetzt NUR an der fehlenden interaktiven Tour liegt will ich nicht behaupten. Aber es passt halt in das Bild.
Aber GANZ wichtig, du darfst die Tour nicht selber erstellen und posten, denn dann wird diese als "Foto vom Eigentümer" identifiziert. Ich kann dir wirklich nur empfehlen eine zertifizierte Agentur zu suchen. Die Preise für diese Art Touren sind bei Weitem nicht mehr so hoch, wie noch vor ein paar Jahren.

Den Zusammenhang zwischen dem erhöhten Erhalt von Reviews und einer interaktiven Tour vermag ich weder zu bestätigen noch zu verneinen. Rein vom Bauchgefühl allerdings, denke ich eher nein, denn eine Bewertung erstellt man ja erst nach einer Erfahrung/Kauf vor Ort. Was die Tour aber auf jeden Fall macht, das konnte ich bei mehreren Kunden sehen, ist dass die Interaktion und Verweildauer enorm ansteigt, dass man dem potenziellen Kunden ohne grosse wall of text sehr zielgerichtet seine gesuchten Antworten geben kann und somit ggü. dem Wettbewerb einen Vorteil erringt.

lg Bernhard

Thank you for the answer. I will try to answer in english so that others can also understand what we are talking about.

I have additional questions:

1) What is the difference between an "interactive tour" and a "normal street view tour"? Is an "interactive tour" something like you have on the website with custom directions?

2) Did you see an improvement in the organic ranking too once you installed the 360 interactive tour? Or was the business already ranking #1 spot? Because people are clearly longer on the page.

3) My question regarding the reviews was unrelated to the street view tour. Sorry for the confusion. Because in my experience reviews play a big role in the gmb ranking. I was wondering if you got any additional reviews during the 2 scans in the original example business. Because that could also have an influence.

Anyways thats quite interesting what you said.