How virtual tours improve SEO performance

Everyone is talking about how virtual tours technology is benefiting the real estate industry by increasing interest in listings and saving valuable time and money. Potential buyers are able to narrow down their choices by viewing them virtually and only go to physically visit properties they’re truly interested in.

But the power of virtual tours is multifaceted, which is why it’s seen as such a game changer for the real estate market. One of the most important (but less thought of) benefits the technology brings is a boost in SEO for every listing and brand that uses it. Now, this article isn’t meant to teach you how SEO works, but we do need a basic understanding of what it is moving forward.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the term for the strategies to make a webpage more visible on Google for users searching for specific terms. Part of the art of SEO is understanding what terms users will search for when they are looking for a product similar to yours and then optimizing your website so that it appears among the first results on the search page. With so many people looking for real estate listings online today, good SEO is critical for success in the industry.

So, how do virtual tours help? To start out, virtual tours bring a massive boost to your brand’s performance on Google simply because they search engine’s algorithms are designed to love interactive content and support exciting new technologies like virtual tours. That means including virtual tours in your listings online will automatically make them appear at least a little higher in Google’s search results.

Then you can always make yourself stand out from the crowd further by putting in a little extra work. Once you’ve figured out what terms users will be searching for when they’re looking for a property or a brand like yours, you can use that information and include it in the title of the virtual tours tour, its description and any other text that might be included in the webpage. Google reads it all and will certainly reward you for it.

But perhaps most importantly, virtual tours are a great catalyst for the creation of backlinks that lead to your site and listings. Backlinks are the hyperlinks that lead from an external site to yours. Having these kinds of links on websites with a high amount of regular traffic tells Google how important and relevant your website must be.

And how do virtual tours impact this element of SEO? First of all, anyone referring to your property on their website can embed your virtual tours tour or link to it for increased engagement and interest. The more of these links and embeds, the better for your website’s performance on Google. Secondly, you can actually encourage this if you own multiple domains or have partners who can link back to your virtual tours tour the main page. Social media can also be an effective tool in this arena, creating links back to your page — and we all know that virtual tours are exciting and shareable. Looks like you are well on your way to improved SEO results once you’ve got your virtual tours up and running.