- Search engine optimization (SEO) is growing ever more important, and in most cases, it's a strategy that requires expert outsourcing.
- Property Panorama's InstaView 3.0 uses structured data to make listing and agent information more detailed for search engines.
- The software update also includes a greater emphasis on mobile content delivery.
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In Oct. 2015, I reviewed Property Panorama’s InstaView, a marketing content creation service for real estate brokerages that creates and publishes an array of listing promotions. InstaView is one of real estate’s most popular virtual tour tools, and now Property Panorama has updated it with more SEO power.
Before we dive into the new stuff, let’s get technical for a moment.
First, here’s a rundown on structured data, a term that comprises any kind of data that’s highly organized and identifiable:
In a web environment, structured data is used to connect a term with a specific value to help search engines more accurately identify and organize results. This process relies on a common vocabulary, so that a request for Mutsu apples, for example, will return pages about Mutsu apples, regardless of the search engine, as well as links to recipes for them, where they’re common and their growing season.
When the agreed upon terms are employed in a website’s programming, well, I’ll let Google explain:
For example, if your site has recipes, you could use markup [structured data] to describe properties for each recipe, such as the summary, the URL to a photo for the dish, and its overall rating from users.
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex (Russia’s largest search engine) joined forces to create Schema.org to facilitate the build-out of a lexicon for webmasters and developers to create clean, easily found web content.
And yes, there’s a lexicon for real estate, making Property Panorama‘s latest update to InstaView possible.
InstaView 3.0
Whew.
So, InstaView 3.0 uses structured data to bake a host of valuable content into a property’s virtual tour. Real estate agent profiles, office services descriptions, upcoming open house dates and times, and listing details are now part of a what person can locate via search engine.
Those extra, easy-to-find details make an agent more attractive to a search engine.
The most prominent benefit is a highly detailed “knowledge panel” on Google, which is the detailed summary card of a business that appears beside organic search results.
Besides the greater SEO benefits, InstaView has been redesigned to be mobile-first while rendering any form of media in its highest possible visual quality on any device.
The new tour tech will make Matterport tours more immersive and drone video more engaging.
Given the number of active agents who use InstaView for virtual tours, which is well above 500,000, this update could have a positive impact on how agents are found and contacted.
That said, InstaView’s new search benefits are no antidote for poor website management.
Agents still need to maintain their sites with current, relevant content and, of course, use it to showcase their listings.
Zillow and realtor.com are already using structured data.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
