Best Practices

 

Setup Single Launch Page for Tour:

We recommend if possible to have a single page on your site dedicated to launching the virtual tour.  This allows you to track traffic in your analytics right up to ‘the front door” of the tour. This works particularly well when a client has several virtual tour modules from us and all can be launched from one page.  Generally works best with a graphic on the homepage or main navigation pushes to this 2nd level page. See example link below.

“Fancybox” Style Overlay:
We have designed the tour to have all necessary navigation in the tour itself, so we now recommend (as our preferred method) to actually open the tour in a fancybox style overlay or modal window that floats over your main website. Your content management system may have this feature built in, or as a simple plugin. See example link below.

Persistent Graphic on All Pages:

You can place a graphic on all pages (header area, and/or footer) to point to tour or above mentioned launch page. See example link below.

Main Navigation Links:

You can place a link to the tour or launch page in your main navigation links.  Popular ones are in the “About Us” and “Our Location” dropdown menus, but you can put anywhere. See example link below.

Example Site Link Using All Methods Above:

Here is an example launch page that uses the Fancybox Overlay to launch tour. The full site also incorporates all the other above mentioned methods:

• SAGENT Networks and Logistics

 

This additional method promotes showing specific images from specialized areas on your site.  We can provide you with individual links that open the tour window to ANY image within that tour.  For example, you have a general hospital tour with 10 images.  Let’s say the 4th image may be the ER.  Well, from your specific ER webpage on your main site, you could add a graphic or link that says “Take a Tour of the ER”.  That link then opens the virtual tour window directly into the ER.

See this use of deep linking in left margin navigation:

• Children’s Hospital of Orange County – use the links on left column below “Bill Holmes Tower – Complete Tour” link and find graphic to launch 360º virtual tours of specific areas inside tour
• See this Example of a Convention Center – Each section as you scroll down has a unique link to that respective area inside the tour

Many of our clients have their own campus maps already  We also now offer a way for you to use the map or floor plan embedded in the tour to use OUTSIDE the tour window.  That can now be put onto your webpages as a way to externally launch the tour.

Some ask how the tour files can be integrated directly into a single page on their website.  This can be accomplished using an iframe embedded into the page, but we warn that the tour is designed to be AT LEAST 1000 pixels wide by 700 pixels tall.  We also suggest using a script that will resize down for mobile devices as well.  This is very important as to make sure that all the navigation elements in the mobile version display properly.

• See this Example Inline on a Page Using an Inline Iframe

 

Tell everybody what you have!  Several of our clients tell us that they regularly send email announcements to their entire mailing lists out to draw attention their tours when they are added to the website, and or when they make any updates.  Many of those clients have us come back and add more images later, or add new features and they will send update emails to announce that as well.

Also many of our clients utilize their other forms of marketing to cross over and push viewers to the virtual tours via broadcast and print.  That promotes a measurable impact of the tours and allows a marketing message to convert over from various marketing formats.