Glossary · 41 terms · 2026
360° Tours Glossary
& Local SEO.
Over forty terms from the world of 360° virtual tours, Google Maps, Local Pack, AI search, and local marketing, each with a short definition. For small businesses that want to quickly understand the terminology used in the local SEO industry in 2026.
360° Virtual Tour
A 360° virtual tour is an interactive presentation of an interior consisting of several spherical panoramas connected into a navigable space. The user can move between rooms and rotate the camera 360° horizontally and 180° vertically. Most often published on Google Maps by a Google Trusted Photographer. At Lokal360 it is available in 2 variants: Premium (DSLR + manual HDR) and Express 24h (LiDAR scanner).
360° Premium Tour
Premium Tour is the flagship variant of the 360° tour at Lokal360. Each panorama is captured with a full-frame DSLR camera with a spherical lens, combined from 50+ HDR shots at different exposures. Manual retouching by the photographer, color grading, correction of mixed lighting. Resolution 12K-16K. Delivery time 5-7 days. Price from 890 PLN net (3 panoramas).
24h Express Tour
24h Express Tour is the fast variant of the 360° tour at Lokal360, captured with a professional LiDAR scanner. 30-60 minute session on-site, automatic post-production, publication on Google Maps within 24 hours of the session. Resolution 8K. Price from 499 PLN net (3 panoramas). Optimal for typical venues: cafés, clinics, offices, salons, shops, medical practices, standard restaurants.
LiDAR Scanner (Light Detection and Ranging)
LiDAR is a distance detection technology using lasers, applied in autonomous vehicles, surveying equipment, architecture, real estate, and modern spatial scanners. In 360° tours, a LiDAR scanner maps space in 3D during the session, generating spherical panoramas along with the room geometry. Used in Lokal360's 24h Express Tour as a fast alternative to multi-hour DSLR sessions.
360° Panorama
A 360° panorama is a single spherical shot covering 360° horizontally and 180° vertically. It differs from a tour in that a tour consists of multiple panoramas connected into a navigable space, while a panorama is a single standalone shot. Often used in Meta Advantage+ VR ads and on websites.
360° Virtual Walkthrough
A 360° virtual walkthrough is a synonym for a virtual tour: an interactive presentation of an interior composed of connected spherical panoramas. In Poland these terms are used interchangeably: virtual tour, virtual walk, virtual walkthrough, 3D tour. All denote the same experience of navigating an interior online, most often published on Google Maps.
Matterport
Matterport is a platform and camera system for creating 3D interior models (digital twins) with a characteristic dollhouse view, 2D floor plan, and measurements (Mattertags). The model is hosted on Matterport servers under a subscription model and embedded on the website via iframe. It does not appear natively on Google Maps. Best suited for real estate, construction, and documentation of large spaces.
Google Street View (Business Tour)
Google Street View in its business version (Street View Trusted) is a 360° tour published directly on the Google Business Profile listing, visible natively in Google Maps and Search. It is published exclusively by a Google Trusted Photographer. One-time payment, the tour remains indefinitely. This is the main local visibility tool for businesses, unlike Matterport.
3DVista
3DVista is software for creating and hosting interactive virtual tours (tour authoring), used by some 360° photography studios in Poland to build tours embedded on client websites. Like Matterport, it does not publish natively on Google Maps; it serves to present a tour on your own site.
HDR (High Dynamic Range)
HDR is a technique of combining several shots of the same scene at different exposures into a single image with the full tonal range, from deep shadows to bright windows. In 360° tours, manual HDR (the Premium variant) captures interiors with mixed lighting better than automatic post-production. Critical for restaurants, hotels, and venues with atmospheric lighting.
Gigapanorama
A gigapanorama is a very high-resolution panorama (on the order of gigapixels), stitched from dozens or hundreds of single shots, allowing deep zoom into details. Used in tourism, culture, and for large objects. Rarely needed for local business tours, as a standard 360° panorama is fully sufficient.
Google Trusted Photographer
Google Trusted Photographer is the official Google certificate for photographers authorized to publish 360° tours directly on clients' Google Business Profile listings, without Google moderation. The certificate requires accreditation and a portfolio of several dozen completed tours.
Local Pack
Local Pack is the block of the 3 top map results in Google Search for queries with local intent (e.g. "restaurant Warsaw"). Positions in the Local Pack are critical for small businesses, as they generate 70-80% of clicks from mobile local searches. Ranking depends on proximity, relevance, and prominence of the listing.
Dwell Time
Dwell time is the time a user spends on a page or listing before returning to search results. A 360° tour on a Google listing extends dwell time (the visitor explores the interior instead of returning immediately), which is an indirect engagement signal affecting Local Pack ranking. This is one of the reasons listings with a tour rank higher.
Google Business Profile (GBP)
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a free business profile in the Google ecosystem. It appears in Google Maps and Search as a listing with address, phone, hours, reviews, photos, and a 360° tour. GBP is one of the 3 most important Local Pack ranking factors in 2026.
Local SEO
Local SEO is the positioning of a website and business listing in Google search results for queries with local intent (e.g. "hairdresser Warsaw"). It includes Google listing optimization, local backlinks, NAP (Name-Address-Phone) citations, LocalBusiness schema, and local content on the site.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
AEO is the optimization of content for answer engines, i.e. Google Featured Snippets, Google AI Overviews, voice assistants (Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri). It requires short definitions of 40-60 words, numbered lists, comparison tables, and Speakable schema.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
GEO is the optimization of content for generative AI engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Grok. Unlike classic SEO (Google rankings), GEO is measured by the number of content citations in AI responses. It requires unique data, case studies with numbers, and an /llms.txt file with indexing for AI crawlers.
Schema.org
Schema.org is a standardized vocabulary of structured data (microdata) for websites, used by Google, Bing, and all AI search engines to understand content. The most common types: LocalBusiness, Service, Product, Article, BreadcrumbList. Implemented in JSON-LD format inside script tags.
JSON-LD
JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is the format for embedding schema.org structured data on a website. Placed in the head section as script type="application/ld+json". This is the only format recommended by Google in 2026 (microdata and RDFa are deprecated).
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is Google's framework for evaluating content quality. Since December 2025 it applies to all competitive queries (not only YMYL). Signals: real author with bio, real address, reviews, case studies with numbers, full price transparency.
Core Web Vitals (CWV)
Core Web Vitals are three Google metrics measuring the quality of page usage: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint, loading speed), INP (Interaction to Next Paint, responsiveness), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift, visual stability). Since March 2024 INP has replaced FID. All measured in the field (real-user metrics).
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
LCP is the time needed to render the largest visible page element (usually the hero image or H1 heading). Good score: under 2.5 seconds. For small food businesses LCP is critical, as visitors close the page within the first 3 seconds if it does not load.
INP (Interaction to Next Paint)
INP is a new Google metric (since March 2024, replacing FID) measuring the delay between a user interaction and the page's visual response (e.g. menu click = view update). Good INP: under 200 ms. WordPress sites with plugins typically have INP of 400-800 ms.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)
CLS is a measure of visual stability of the page during loading. High CLS = elements "jump" during loading (e.g. a button shifts when a banner loads). Good CLS: under 0.1. The most common cause of high CLS: missing width and height of images in HTML.
NAP Citations
NAP citations (Name, Address, Phone) are consistent business entries in online directories with exactly the same name, address, and phone as on the website and in Google Business Profile. Top PL directories: Panorama Firm, Aleo, GoWork, Pkt.pl. NAP consistency is a direct Local Pack ranking factor.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. For SEO, consistency of anchor texts pointing to a specific page is important (e.g. all links to /spacer-wirtualny-warszawa/ should use "virtual tour Warsaw", not "click here"). It helps Google understand the topic of the target page.
Internal Linking
Internal linking is the strategy of linking within your own domain in order to pass authority (link equity) between pages and signal to Google the importance of specific pages. Best practice: top blog posts link to offer pages with specific anchor texts.
Backlink
A backlink is a link leading from another website to yours. The number and quality of backlinks is one of the strongest Google ranking factors. For small businesses, the best backlinks are: PL industry directories, guest articles on industry portals, links in the footers of clients for whom a site was built.
Domain Rating (DR)
Domain Rating is a 0-100 scale assessing the strength of a domain's backlink profile. An Ahrefs invention, used by the industry as a proxy for domain authority. DR 30+ for a small business after a year of operation is a good result. Lokal360 reached DR 30 in the first quarter of operation.
Featured Snippet
Featured Snippet is a highlighted answer to a query in Google Search, displayed at position #0 (above regular results). Format: short definition of 40-60 words, numbered list, or table. A page in a Featured Snippet achieves 30-50% CTR (vs 10% for position #1).
AI Overviews
Google AI Overviews (formerly SGE, Search Generative Experience) are AI-generated blocks shown at the very top of search results. They cite 3-5 pages as sources. A position in AI Overviews requires: schema.org Article, strong E-E-A-T, short definitions in the content, and full factual accuracy.
Speakable Schema
Speakable schema is a fragment of schema.org indicating to Google which elements of the page should be read by voice assistants (Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri). Format: cssSelector with a list of elements (e.g. ["h1", ".tldr", "p.intro"]). Rarely used by competitors, a strong SEO edge.
LocalBusiness Schema
LocalBusiness schema is a schema.org type for local businesses with a physical address. Requires: name, address (PostalAddress), geo (GeoCoordinates), telephone, openingHours, priceRange. After implementation, Google can show a Rich Result with map, hours, and click-to-call in the SERP.
XML Sitemap
XML sitemap is a file with a list of all URLs on the site, facilitating fast Google indexing. Location: domain.pl/sitemap.xml or sitemap-index.xml. Submitted to Google Search Console. For a small business with 100-200 URLs, the sitemap should be generated automatically at build time.
robots.txt
robots.txt is a text file in the root of the domain instructing web crawlers (Googlebot, ClaudeBot, GPTBot, etc.) which parts of the site they may or may not index. In 2026 it is additionally used to explicitly allow/disallow AI crawlers (Google-Extended, CCBot, Bytespider).
Canonical URL
Canonical URL is the official, preferred version of a URL indicated in the link rel="canonical" tag. Used to eliminate the duplicate content problem (e.g. domain.pl/page/ vs domain.pl/page?utm_source=fb). Each page should have exactly one canonical pointing to itself or to the master version.
hreflang
hreflang is an HTML tag indicating to Google the language version of a page (e.g. PL, EN, DE). Format: link rel="alternate" hreflang="pl-PL" href="...". Required for multilingual sites. A single-language PL site can omit it (lang="pl" in html is enough).
Page Authority
Page Authority (Moz) or URL Rating (Ahrefs) is an assessment of the strength of a specific URL on a 0-100 scale, unlike Domain Authority/Rating which refers to the entire domain. UR of a specific subpage results from the number and quality of backlinks pointing directly to it and from internal linking from other subpages of that domain.
Topical Authority
Topical authority is a domain's authority in a specific niche (topical cluster). Measured by Google as the completeness of topical coverage: whether the domain covers all subtopics, has hub-and-spoke architecture, uses proper anchor texts. A small domain with topical authority can beat a large generic domain.
Llms.txt
llms.txt is a new standard (introduced in 2024) file in the root of the domain indexing the site's content for AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude). Format: markdown with a list of pages and their descriptions. Lokal360 has /llms.txt, /llms-pl.txt and /llms-full.txt (130+ URLs with descriptions).
Missing a term in the glossary?
The glossary is updated quarterly based on client questions and new terms entering the industry. If you\'re looking for a definition that is not in the glossary, write to [email protected], we\'ll add it in the next update. Each term has its own anchor (e.g. `#term-3`), so you can link directly to a specific definition.
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