Google Street View 360 Video Tours for Professional Service Businesses

[mattstephenskc]

Happy December, folks!

Does anyone here have evidence for the local search (GBP visibility) impact of including 360-degree video tours of a professional service business on Google Street View? I run marketing for a law firm with 5 offices, and a videography company contacted us recently about creating and uploading Street View tours for us. If resources were unlimited, I'd give it the green light. But since they aren't, we need to estimate the impact of these to make an informed decision.

I'd expect very few potential clients to look for a video tour of a law firm office, particularly smaller offices like ours. I can understand the benefit of directional assistance in finding parking and the entrance, if either is obscure. (I believe ours are pretty straightforward.) But is this a "nice to have" or a "must have" from Google's perspective?

P.S. The video company also pitched interior video tours for Street View, which Google doesn't currently support.

Thanks in advance,

Matt

 

[whitespark]

I have never seen evidence to support that these directly impact rankings, but could potentially make the case that they could indirectly help increase engagement signals and dwell time on the Profile. You could probably get the same benefits just by regularly uploading photos and videos that you're already posting to social, though.

 

[Giovanni Rosso]

Happy December, folks!

Does anyone here have evidence for the local search (GBP visibility) impact of including 360-degree video tours of a professional service business on Google Street View? I run marketing for a law firm with 5 offices, and a videography company contacted us recently about creating and uploading Street View tours for us. If resources were unlimited, I'd give it the green light. But since they aren't, we need to estimate the impact of these to make an informed decision.

I'd expect very few potential clients to look for a video tour of a law firm office, particularly smaller offices like ours. I can understand the benefit of directional assistance in finding parking and the entrance, if either is obscure. (I believe ours are pretty straightforward.) But is this a "nice to have" or a "must have" from Google's perspective?

P.S. The video company also pitched interior video tours for Street View, which Google doesn't currently support.

Thanks in advance,

Matt

who told you that Google does not support indoor virtual tours on Google Maps?

I do them constantly, and they work without problems, at the moment.

I must tell you, however, that from January 1, 2025, the qualification of Google Certified Photographer or any other similar alias will completely expire.

I totally agree with whitespark that there is no indicator that Google Maps virtual tours help in the ranking, it is simply the best way to show the interiors and exteriors of a structure or a private business.

regards

Giovanni

 

[keyserholiday]

Either you or your client can take their own 360 tour video. Google does accept interior tours.

 

[mattstephenskc]

I should’ve been clearer: Google said they don’t currently support interior tours in Street View. Not sure why I got hung up on this, but a videography company contacted us about doing these. Tours in the GBP media section would be cool, though.

 

[lonerangerseo]

We specialise in 360 Google Virtual Tours for local businesses too. We do think they make some difference to search ranking the same as any images do. At the end of the day they'll encourage more clicks and activity on your Google profiles from nosy people who look around.

Would also recommend embedding them into your business website which can be done for free with Google maps.