Virtual tour or Google Street View: what is the difference?
Both let people explore a location online. That is where the similarity ends. Street View is about visibility on Google, while a virtual tour tells your story on your own website.
In brief
Google Street View shows a location in Google Maps and Google Search. A virtual tour sits on your own website and gives you control over the route, style and information. Choose Street View if you mainly want people to find your address. Choose a virtual tour if you want to guide visitors through your company.
Google Street View: visible through your Google listing
With an Google Street View tour people can look inside from Google Search or Google Maps. The images are linked to your company’s Google listing or address. This is useful for people who want to see the entrance or reception area before visiting or calling.
Zien360 creates and publishes the images and links them to the correct listing or address.
A virtual tour: your story, your website
The virtual tour is independent of Google and built around your organisation’s story. Visitors explore for themselves and open extra text, images, videos and links about a space, department, machine or vacancy.
Several languages and an interactive floor plan are also possible. This helps visitors understand why a space works as it does, rather than only seeing what it looks like.
Side by side
Virtual tour
- Your own goal and audience
- Appears on your own website
- Your own navigation and interactive information
- Suitable for marketing, sales, recruitment and explanation
- Host it yourself or let Zien360 handle it
Google Street View
- Focused on visibility within Google
- Linked to Maps and your Google listing
- Explore within Google
- Suitable for access through Google
- Published within Google
When is Street View enough?
When people mainly want to know where you are and what the location looks like. Think of a restaurant, showroom, shop or hotel: places people search for and visit through Google. They can move straight from searching to looking inside.
When is your own tour more useful?
When you want to tell a focused story. A factory can show how a product is made. A school can guide future students through the building. A healthcare organisation can prepare visitors for an appointment. For recruitment, the tour shows future colleagues where they will work. In these cases, looking around is not enough. The information and chosen route make the difference.
Do you need to choose, or can you use both?
You can use both. Street View provides visibility within Google. You can also add a virtual tour to your own website for a more detailed tour.
Good to know: Not every location needs both. We prefer to start with the goal and then recommend the format that is enough.
Tell us briefly about the location and who you want to reach. We will give focused advice.