Any business that has a physical location will benefit from a virtual tour.

They’re great for any sized business but especially suited to larger businesses that may have multiple areas, buildings or even sites.

This makes it easy for the user to access various areas of the tour/building/sites whilst being presented with information in each area.

Back in the early days of 360 tours, each city had a small number of ‘Google certified photographers’. We photograhed tours that would be added to your Google listing. It was a great way of marketing your businesses and when used correctly, could really increase impressions, and click through rates resulting in extra web traffic and bookings.

Over the years Google swapped and changed many things and took a lot of control off our hands. The main bug bearer for many photographers was the difficuly in capturing larger businesses and making it a user friendly tour. Until they released Multi-floor tours, you’d have to navigate down corridors and up staircases to get from A-B. Following a Google update which allowed for floor numbers to be added (aka the elevator widget) it enabled different floors to be captured and assigned to a number for quick and easy access. (not idea but it worked, kind of!)

Fast forward a couple of years, Google tours no longer had support, like most things, bugs appeared that wasn’t fixed with updates. The elevator widget stopped working, you no longer had to be a certified photographer to capture street view style tours, no extra features/updates were added and the entire platform was left to rot. During those times other platforms were developed by independant companies (presumably because they were so fed up at the lack of technology available, especially as the technology was out there)

Custom tours was a breath of fresh air! They worked, and they worked well, aside from the 360 view, we were now able to add features into a tour, we could make the tour rotate, add hotspots and info cards, add video and stills into the tour and they’re all built on a reliable platform. As technology improves, so do the tours.

The comparison between Google tours & custom tours is night and day (quite literally as you can even have day to night transitional panoramas!) The features available with custom tours blows anything else out the water (check out live guided tours!) the tours are reliably hosted and maintained, work on all platforms and use the latest technology.

Absolutely, I would encourage you to keep the tour up to date and maybe look at adding new areas to the tour following any refurbishments or changes.

The best thing about a custom tour is the ability to add or remove sections and update information as and when needed. As technology expands, so does your tour!

INITIAL CONSULTATION: It’s always good to chat about your vision/requirements and to get an idea of the size and scale of the project. This enables me to find out exactly what youre looking for in order to provide a quote.

THE SHOOT: The Photography can be done at a convenient time to minimise disruption. This is actually a quick process and doesn’t take that long.

THE BUILD: This is where the hard work starts. I use the photographs and & media assets to construct the tour in line with your branding.

FOLLOW UP: I’ll check in after 12 months to see how the tour has performed and weather you need to make any revisions to the tour.

Custom tours are exactly what they say on the tin, there’s a lot of features, some of which are optional extras so prices can vary depending on the features, size & scale. The good news is that you can decide how big or small to make the tour and I can work with you to make sure you get the most for your money.

All tours need to be hosted on a reliable and fast server. I offer 12 months hosting which covers maintenance and minor revisions. Following the first year you’re welcome to self-host the tour, or I can continue to host the tour for a small annual fee (£90)