THE INVISIBLE LISTING - AND THE SELLER WHO PUTS UP WITH BEING INVISIBLE

Yesterday, a prospective buyer walked into our Madeline Island real estate office to inquire about a vacant land property not far from downtown.

She asked me if I could provide information on that particular property.  When I did a Google Search for the address, I realized that she had the fire number (same as a house number here on Madeline Island) wrong, but at least she was close.  After searching for quite awhile, I was finally able to locate the property, which happens to be listed by a competitor.

And when I looked at the Google Search results for the specific street address of that competitor's listing, I found a total of two entries.

That's right, only TWO search results in three pages of ten results per page!  And I looked for search results on the first three pages of Google Search for that address, in order to find those two entries.

Then I did a Google Search for the specific street addresses of our own vacant land listings on Madeline Island.  Here's what I found:

4121 Chippewa Trail, LaPointe, Wisconsin (vacent lakeshore lot) - 29 search results linking to our listing in the first three pages of Google search for that address (there are 30 search results per page)

Lot 9, North Shore Heights and Lot 10, North Shore Heights (both vacant land) - 23 search results linking to those listings in the first three pages of Google Search for that specific search.

2687 Big Bay Road, LaPointe, Wisconsin (vacant lakeshore lot) - 30 search results linking to our listing in the first three pages of Google search for that exact address (30 results out of 30 possible results)

WHY DO SELLERS PUT UP WITH THEIR PROPERTY BEING ALMOST INVISIBLE ON THE WEB?

DO THEY CARE?  OR IS IT SIMPLY THAT THEY ARE UNAWARE OF WHAT THEIR LISTING AGENT IS DOING (OR NOT DOING)?

Wouldn't most sellers want their listing to appear on more than one or two webpages?  And how likely is it that a prospective buyer will find a particular listing if it is not listed by address, but rather as "beautiful cottage on Lake Superior"?