What is a Virtual Tour?

Virtual tours for businesses allow potential customers to visit showrooms, services and more from their mobile or desktop device, no matter where they are located. Investing in these types of tours can increase conversions and footfall in shops, as well as increase trust with a target audience.

Find out what a virtual tour is, how they work and the benefits of investing and implementing a virtual tour on Google here.

What Are Virtual Tours?

A virtual tour is a digital simulation of a space that can be toured digitally as if the user is in the room or space. Virtual tours allow viewers to digitally “walk through” and explore an area as if they were physically present. Virtual tours consist of a 360-degree panoramic view of the area that can be scrolled as a person “walks through” the tour.

Typically composed of a sequence of images or videos, virtual tours sometimes also use other multimedia elements such as audio narration, text descriptions or annotations, and interactive features in the tour.

Google virtual tours are commonly used in real estate, tourism, education, and entertainment industries to showcase properties, attractions, museums, house tours and more to increase the likelihood of a conversion or visitor.

Main Types of Virtual Tours

There are a variety of types of virtual tours available to businesses, and some may be more beneficial for the service than others. The most popular types of tours include the following:

Interactive Virtual Tours

These types of virtual tours allow users to interact with the virtual environment by clicking on hotspots, navigating through different rooms or areas, and accessing additional information through text, images, or videos.

Virtual tours have an annotation and image feature where you can embed information or product images within the virtual tour. This can be really beneficial for people searching for more information about certain products or areas of a business.

360-Degree Virtual Tours

Also known as panoramic tours, these types of tours provide a seamless 360-degree view of a location, allowing users to look around in any direction as if they were standing in the middle of the space.

Google Street View Tours

Google virtual tours can be massively beneficial for SEO purposes and allows you to link your business to Google Maps. The new  Street View Publish API feature on Google street view tours allows you to connect your virtual tour to the street view on Google Maps, which can help convert visitors, increase visibility, and improve site position in the SERP.

Guided Tours

Guided virtual tours include audio or text narration that accompanies the visual experience, providing users with information, stories, or explanations about specific elements or areas within the location.

This type of tour is a less independent form of tour for the user but can be helpful if you are a business trying to sell a service or location, such as tourist companies or museums.

How Do Virtual Tours Work?

Virtual tours need to be filmed on specialist equipment in order to get a 360 video tour experience. We typically use the Matterport virtual tour camera to capture 360 virtual tours and photographs.

The virtual tour process can be broken down into 3 parts – the filming, the scan and edit, and the upload.

To film a virtual tour, a specialist camera such as the Matterport is positioned 2 metres apart across the entire space desired for the tour. The camera is positioned on a stand and takes multiple images as it turns 360 degrees, capturing the entire room from that exact position.

Once the space has been filmed in this way, the data will be scanned and uploaded to create a doll house scan of the entire property or room. Once this has been completed, you are then able to use the virtual tour and move around the room from spot to spot that was filmed.

This creates the sense that a person is walking through the space as you are able to select where you want to view the room from. In virtual tours you can also turn around 360 degrees, as if you are looking around.

Once the filming and scan are completed, businesses are then able to upload the virtual tour to their website or connect it to Google Maps.

Who Uses Virtual Tours?

Virtual tours are commonly utilised by businesses and companies who benefit from visitors viewing the tour.

Common businesses who invest in 360 tours include:

• Real estate house tours
• Showrooms and stores
• Hotels
• Restaurants and bars
• Universities and schools
• Tourist attractions
• Exhibitions such as museums and art galleries

Benefits of a Virtual Tour

Virtual tours offer a number of benefits across various industries and is a good investment to make if you are looking to increase footfall and business visibility online.

Virtual tours offer a cost-effective method to market your business and services online. They are also a great investment to make as it requires a one-time payment for the filming, after which you will have the tour for as long as you want to use it.

Another major benefit of virtual tours is that they enhance accessibility by allowing people to remotely explore businesses and locations. Being unsure whether a building is accessible can deter people from visiting, so virtual tours can help clear this up.

Virtual tours also help to increase engagement through interactive features, keeping viewers engaged and informed about your services. It is also beneficial to have an online tour that is available 24/7 for people to access, saving time for both visitors and business owners.

Virtual tours provide a competitive edge by offering modern, innovative ways to interact with products, services, or buildings through an easily accessible software.

Learn More About Virtual Tours

If you are considering investing in a virtual tour or want to learn more about how it could help your business, get in touch with our team today.

We offer virtual tour and video production services to businesses looking to improve their marketing and reach with potential audiences.