Google is currently rolling out an upgrade to the street view function of its maps to include images of the inside of shopping centres and other buildings.

The inside of a number of the country’s biggest Westfield, Stockland and Centro malls can now be viewed via street maps, as well as sports stadiums and city landmarks.

Jim Stewart, chief executive, StewArt Media believes franchisees can benefit from the upgrade by creating a Google Places account or updating their existing account to include useful information about their business such as customer reviews, images and videos, reports SmartCompany.

 “The stores should make sure they’ve got a Google Places page set up, and they should encourage happy customers to leave a review.

“You obviously don’t want to break terms of service by offering some sort of financial reward for that, but a lot of businesses still don’t have this Google Places stuff set up,” he said. 

Franchisees should also look at posting information about new products and promotions on a regular basis. 

By regularly updating the page users will have access to more detailed information about a particular business when they search for it, which may make them more inclined to visit it. 

It also means businesses will rank better when it comes to SEO. 

 “If you get people to leave good reviews on Google+ or Google Places, that’s another ranking signal,” said Stewart.

The indoor map function also allows people to use their smartphones to find a particular store as they physically walk through shopping centres.

The blue dot icon will appear on the map to highlight where the user is situated in the mall and where the store they are looking for is located.

This can be of great benefit to franchisees as it means potential customers are able to find stores much faster.