Inverary Resorts to be featured on Google Business Photos
BADDECK — The Inverary Resort is the first business in the Maritimes to be photographed for Google Business Photos.
Google Business Photos, which works much like Google Street View, enables businesses to provide the potential visitor with a visual, virtual tour.
“If a business is on a street that is part of Google Street View, you can virtually walk right into the business off the street,” said Greg Weir, the first Google Trusted Independent Photographer in the Maritime region.
“You can not only walk through the business, if something grabs your attention such as the menu in a restaurant, you can zoom in on it and read it, or get a close look at what’s on the shelves of a retail store.”
Weir, who lives in Bucklaw outside of Baddeck, spent a day shooting the Inverary Resort, which is a Cape Breton Resorts property, and expects the virtual tour to be up on Google Business Photos in about two weeks.
His next stop is the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre in Judique.
The 360-degree interactive panoramas of interiors of businesses enhance business listings on Google search results pages and will be seen on Google Maps and Google+ Local listings.
“It’s an opportunity to showcase your business to customers around the world,” he said. “Customers can walk through and explore your business. Pretty much any business that wants to can be photographed, with a few exceptions.”
There is a cost associated that starts at around $300. Once completed, the photographs remain the property of the business owners and can be embedded on their own websites or used in social media.
Google Business Photos can also provide a set of “point of interest” photos such as hours of operation, menus, awards, and other focal points.
“This is very exciting to be the first business in Atlantic Canada to participate in this program,” said Elaine Fitzgerald Muise, the director of marketing for Cape Breton Resorts. “Google is the main search engine for our customers and we are looking forward to enhancing our presence on Google and ultimately making it easier for consumers to make their vacation plans online.
“Being involved in this makes perfect sense. The other search engines are just not as popular as Google.”
She added that there is no comparison when it comes to stats from other search engines.
“There is no comparison when we look at what drives traffic to our site. This also give us a chance to feature our new vacation homes to the world virtually,” Muise said. “The less clicks the better for people who are searching. One click to take the virtual tour, two to book and we’re done.”
Weir said Google put him through significant training, adding that he was required to do several test shoots before going out to sell it as a service.
“I want it to be a pure walking tour, so it has to be a pathway that can be navigated and this means removing anything that might be in the way.
“You can’t walk through a table or step over things when you are taking a virtual tour.
“Also, rather than having to blur faces, I do whatever I can to avoid having people in the shots.
“To book a shoot, visit businessphoto.ca and that gets the process started.”