Channel partners with Cornwall’s first Google Trusted Photographer

Channel are delighted to announce a brand new partnership with Nevil Swinchatt of Cornwall Business Photos, who is Cornwall’s first accredited Google Business Photos’ ‘Trusted Photographer’.

Google Business Photos provide a virtual 3D tour of a business’s premises, giving potential customers a chance to take a look around your premises on Google, before they come and visit in person. This is great news for shops, restaurants, hotels and other “bricks and mortar” type businesses who are vying to attract customers in these very difficult times, as they do say that a picture is worth a 1000 words.

 

“According to Google, in 2012 local searches made up at least 40% of all PC based searches and more than 40% of mobile searches,” says Martin Dinham of Channel. “This means that people are increasingly using the internet to find local services and products. So businesses are responding by promoting themselves online using Google Local, Google+ business pages and Google Maps. These all help because they give businesses listings in local search results for free.”

“Google Business Photos goes one step further,” Nevil continues. “Whereas Google’s Streetview shows photos of a business’s location, Google Photos takes visitors right into the interior of a shop or restaurant, or displays the contents of a showroom, all in a 3D format. This is great for businesses who really need to show people what they look like.”

As well as making a website much more visible on Google’s local search results, these virtual tours can also be fully integrated into the business’s website, which should again help make it more inviting to visitors and encourage them to visit in person.

The only requirement of using this service is that the photographs must be taken in a particular way and uploaded to Google by a Google Approved Photographer. This is where officially accredited Nevil Swinchatt comes in.

Nevil of CBP, so far the only Google Trusted Photographer in Cornwall, visits the premises and takes the requisite number of photographs to create a 3D panorama, according to certain rules laid down by Google.  These are then uploaded to the business’s Google+ page, so they can then show up in Google’s search results.

Once this is done, Channel works on help the website achieve optimal positioning in Google’s local search results by adding further content and images, and using their best in class search engine optimisation techniques to improve exposure. Additional value can be created by including tours on your web site or shopping cart, and implementing advanced Analytics and other interactive features to help you take full advantage of them.

Put together, Channel and Nevil help work the page up local search results rankings, increasing website visibility, improving site visitors, and ultimately increasing sales.

“This is a great opportunity for local businesses, who can benefit so much from this service,” concludes Martin. “It’s a really cost effective way of promoting themselves to potential customers.”

Examples of the Google 3D panoramas are available here
Example of a Google Place page

If you would like to take advantage of any of these services our team will be delighted to hear from you.

Or you can contact Nevil Swinchatt directly.