Sapphire Collaborative - click to return to home page Hire a Google Street View Trusted Photographer for a 360 virtual tour



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How to Get Started

Getting started with Google Maps Business View

Step 1: Get listed on Google Maps with Google My Business

Before we can create a virtual tour for your business you must already have a business listing in Google Maps. Google offers free listings to every business, and most already do. Have you ever looked up your information online? You can start by going to https://www.gybo.com/ and clicking the Check My Business button to see if your business is listed.

Listings are free to setup from the GYBO website, but you do have to verify that you are the owner of the business. Business verification can sometimes be tricky, and we're happy to help with this process. In addition to having a Google Trusted Photographer on staff, we are also Google City Partners, which means we can expedite the verification process for your business.

Once your My Business account is active, the more information you add to it, the better your business will appear in Google's network of services. We do offer a service to help your update your listing. You can read about our Google My Business Update Service here.

Step 2: Consultation

Once your business page has been created, use the form to the right to schedule an appointment, or call 973-413-8211 to arrange a walk through of your business virtual tour. We will walk through and map out the path of the 360 degree tour to count the number of 360 degree photo bubbles that will be needed to cover the areas you want to cover, as well as the required photo sphere locations required by Google.

During that meeting we will discuss how and when the tour will be shot, what your responsibility will be, and if customers or employees are allowed to be in the photo shoot or if it must be done during off hours.

We will also discuss ways to add creative visuals to the tour to make it more captivating for your potential customers.

If you are happy with the details and price we will schedule the Google virtual tour photo shoot. You will also sign a service agreement for the photography.

Visit our pricing page for an idea of what your virtual tour might cost.

Schedule an Appointment

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Step 3: The Photo Shoot

We will arrive at your business on the scheduled date and time for your photo shoot. For businesses with outside doors, Google does require that the photo shoot take place when it's not raining or snowing. Overcast or stormy days are fine, as long as there's no precipitation when the outside photos are taken. The photo shoot may need to be rescheduled due to weather.

The virtual tour will be online forever unless your business closes or you contact Google to have it removed. Consider this longevity and prepare your business for however you'd want it to appear. Some of our previous clients cleaned, painted, remolded, and stocked extra products on their shelves to create the best appearance of their business.

The agreed upon payment for the Google Maps Virtual Tour is required at the end of the photo session. The duration of the photo shoot depends on the size of your business and the cooperation of the people on location at the time. The 360 degree photo shoots can usually be completed within 2 hours, but a few have lasted more than 4 hours when customers were present.

Step 4: Moderation

Once the photo shoot is completed, we will upload the photos to Google's system. The Google servers will create the photo bubbles and we will connect them all together to create the virtual tour. This process is known as moderation.

We are required to blur the faces of anyone that appears in the virtual tour; we will also blur license places.

Step 5. Publishing

Once the moderation is complete, the the entire set of 360 photos are added to your existing Google My Business account and associated to your Google Maps and other Google properties.

We will also supply you with the full resolution, licensed, point of interest images we took the day of the photo shoot. You can use these in your other marketing as needed.

Once your Google tour is live on Google Maps you will also be able to embed the Virtual Tour directly into your own website using the simple HTML code we will provide.