I am a photographer for the Google Maps Business View program. Participation in this program gets you a panoramic walk-through tour and several high resolution feature photos of your business.
The tour is basically Street View for inside your business, similar to virtual tours used in real estate - a 360 degree panoramic walk-through showing the customer experience of walking through the business. The walk-through creates an opportunity for people to navigate through the space online to get a feel for what you have to offer as well as the ambiance they can expect to experience when they come in.
The walk-through tour is published on Google Maps and directly linked to Street View. It also comes up in Google searches and Google Maps searches, displays on your Google Local page, and you can embed it in your own website if you want.
Feature photos include the business front, interior space, decorative details, and items for sale that you would like to feature. After the photo shoot, you own all the images and can do with them whatever you like in addition to their automatic display on Google Local.
Example panorama walk-through tours:
To navigate through the business, click the short arrows in the center-bottom of the image. To pan around in a particular view, click-drag any area within the image.
School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts
Participation in the Google Maps Business View program generally costs $250-$750 for small businesses, depending on the size and layout of the space. Large stores and event venues can cost more. This is a one-time fee paid directly to the photographer. Photographers are certified by Google through a training program but work as freelancers and are not paid by Google. The fee includes the photo shoot for the pano walk-through and business feature images as well as publishing to Google.
To qualify, your business must have a Google+listing. Here's how to set up your free listing: https://www.google.com/business
To schedule a photo shoot, get a quote for your business, or for any other questions, email me at [email protected].