Frequently Asked Questions

Street View Trusted, formerly known as Google Maps Business View (GMBV),  is a 360° virtual self-guided tour and professional Point-of-Interest (POI) photos of your business, using Google Street View technology and appearing on Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+ Local. GMBV is only available through Google-certified Trusted Independent Photographers.

Video takes the viewer from the beginning to the end, without the ability to stop and look around. Business View lets your customers "Walk through" your business at their own pace, taking time to see your atmosphere and really get a feel for who you are and what you do.

No. The purpose of Business View is to let people see the atmosphere and decor of your business. E-commerce is best done through an e-commerce website or app. We can assist you with that.

You can embed it on your own website, share it through social media, use linked QR codes in your print ads, etc. When someone asks to see your facilities you can send them to the tour.

A GMBV virtual tour covers all customer-accessible areas. Areas that are only accessible by staff and other employees are not covered.

The cost depends on the size and layout of the business, but generally ranges from $359-$1200. It depends on the number of photospheres necessary to create a full walk-through tour of the business. A retail store or showroom with lots of aisles & displays will need more photospheres than a restaurant or gym with lots of wide-open spaces.

No. Once you've paid for the creation of the tour, there are no additional costs or fees.

Google Owns the virtual tour. You own the POI photos and the rights to use the tour and POI photos for marketing, advertising, and any other uses you see fit. Reg Francklyn Photography retains the right to use the tour and photos for promotional purposes.

The virtual tour and POI photos are hosted on Google Maps. They are linked and displayed on your Google+ Local business page, and they show up in the Knowledge Graph in Google Search.

Google has taken steps to ensure the quality of GMBV virtual tours through the training & certification of their photographers, the required use of approved equipment, and their proprietary stitching software. In addition, only official GMBV virtual tours are hosted on Google Maps and appear in Google Search and on Google+ Local pages.

To get a "free" virtual tour from YP you still have to pay monthly for their other services, so it isn't really free. GMBV offers higher quality, higher resolution HDR imagery for a bright welcoming look, and GMBV navigation is more intuitive. Over 70% of people ages 25-44 use Google to search for local businesses vs. 12% for YP, so a GMBV virtual tour will be seen by many more people than one on YP. GMBV tours are prominently featured where people are looking... YP tours only show up on YP.com.

Reg Francklyn Photography offers a 40% discount for seasonal or remodeling reshoots.

SER is affected by a wide variety of factors, including visual imagery. Google Executive have stated that Google tour will increase your relevance on Google Searches. A GMBV virtual tour adds rich visual imagery to your online presence, which will boost your search rank. Online activity also affects SER, so embedding it on your website and sharing it through social media will help. Maintaining regular activity on your Google+ page is also a contributing factor. Positive reviews are also key to keeping good ranking. Respond to all reviews!

You can track it through increased traffic on your Google+ Local page. You can track it through increased traffic from Google Search to your website. By embedding it on your website you can track it through page views and retention. By sharing it on social media you can track it through the response of your followers. Many new customers coming through the door will tell you they decided to come in after taking the virtual tour. Because it's a one-time expense, your ROI will continue to improve over time.

Yes! If you want to have a menu driven tour I can build that for you. Menu drive tours cannot be seen on Google Business listings presently, but are very helpful on your website, and are great for larger businesses or resorts,

A variety of locations are eligible including restaurants, salons, gyms, retail stores, department stores, auto repair shops, art galleries, auto dealerships, corporate offices, government offices, leasing offices, and more.

Dental clinics, laser clinics, cosmetic surgery clinics, physical therapy centers, ultrasound centers and Pre-K to 12 schools are eligible if they are open during the daytime only and have no residential facility.

Places of historical, cultural, thematic and tourism significance are eligible, but may have already been claimed by Google's Special Collects Department. These places include (this list is not exhaustive) churches, museums, castles, tourism centers and repositories of ancient historical and cultural artifacts.

Apartments, homes, hospitals, medical clinics, mental health clinics, abortion clinics, trauma centers, rehabilitation centers, addiction treatment centers, police/military facilities, detention centers and jails are not eligible.

Google Trusted Independent Photographers use approved DSLR cameras and fisheye lenses to take a series of hi-res HDR photographs. I use proprietary stitching software to combine the photos into a virtual tour.

You can shoot panoramic tour with your smartphone and publish them through the street view app. The quality of stitching and sharpness is not the same as the imagery published by a Google Street View|Trusted pro. We use a an expensive lens and rotator to get the results.

Yes. In many cases, we can submit corrections to your business's Google information. These corrections are usually live within 72 hours.

No. Google sets their own schedule for Street View updates, usually once every few years.

If you get a call from someone claiming to be from Google offering to update your search info or help you with your SEO / SER, chances are they're NOT from Google. Google doesn't cold-call people on the phone to sell anything. The only time Google will call you is if you have an existing relationship with them, if you have requested information about a particular issue, or just to verify some information. If someone calls you claiming to be with Google, ask them if there's any charge or fee for what they're offering to do. If they say yes, hang up.

The people who call you claiming to be from Google are usually SEO firms trying to get you to subscribe to their monthly-fee-based services. Some of them are legitimate, some of them are not, and some of them will offer to give you a free GMBV virtual tour when you sign up. These "free" tours are usually bare-bones consisting of one exterior and one interior photosphere, and the amount you end up paying via their monthly fee is much more than the cost of having a real GMBV tour done by a Trusted Independent Photographer.

Accordion tab content