You type your exact shop name and your site shows up, but you type "5 litre air fryer" and your shop is nowhere. Do you have to pay for SEO to fix that? For the first steps, no. Most of the basics you can do yourself in one afternoon.
SEO (making it easy for Google to understand your site and show it when people search) is like putting a sign on your shop. A good shop that nobody knows sells anything is still quiet.
How Google sees your site
Google does not look at your site the way a customer does. A robot walks through your pages one by one, reads the text, notes the image names and records everything in a huge phone book. When someone searches "5 litre air fryer", Google flips through the book and picks the pages it believes match best and can be trusted.
So your job is to help the robot understand quickly: what this page sells, at what price, for whom. Most of the basic work is simply writing clearly.
What a shop owner can do alone
The page title. This is the big blue line in the search result (Google calls it the title link). Write the specific product name with its type and one key feature, for example "Philips 5 litre air fryer, 24 month warranty", instead of "Product 1" or "Home". Give every page its own title.
The short description. This is the smaller text under the title. Google may pick a different passage if it fits the search better, and Google's documentation does not describe it as a ranking factor. Still, it helps people decide to click, so write one or two careful sentences about what shoppers care about: price, warranty, delivery.
Product names and page content. Use the words customers actually type. People search "men's cotton crew neck t-shirt", rarely your internal product code. Write a few paragraphs in plain language: material, sizes, when to use it, how it differs from the cheaper one. Do not paste the manufacturer's description as is, because hundreds of other shops did the same.
Images. Three things. First, a meaningful file name, such as air-fryer-5l.jpg instead of IMG_4421.jpg. Second, replacement text for the picture (alt text), one short sentence saying what the image shows, which also lets blind visitors hear it. Third, keep the files light so the page stays fast, see How a Slow Website Costs You Customers, and a 5-Minute Speed Check.
Google Search Console. This is Google's free tool for site owners. You prove you own the site, and then you can see which pages Google has recorded, which searches brought people to you, and what errors exist. Open it first whenever you wonder whether your site is on Google. You also submit your sitemap here, a list that keeps the robot from missing pages.
Google Business Profile. If your shop has a real address, or you serve a local area, create the free business profile. It is the information panel on the right when someone searches your shop name, and the listing on the map when they search "shop near me". Fill in the name, address, phone number, opening hours and real photos. The name, address and phone should match your website exactly.
What to hand to a developer
Some jobs live in code and settings. You do not need to do them, but you should know what to ask for. Structured data is hidden markup that tells Google "this is a product, this is the price, it is in stock", and can make star ratings or prices appear in the results. Google's documentation explains how it works for products. Also in this group are clean and stable page addresses (URLs), redirects when addresses change so old visitors are not lost, a sitemap that updates itself, avoiding duplicate pages, speed, and the multilingual setup if you have one. For sites built with Next.js, I put these techniques together in Making Sure Google Sees Both Languages of Your Next.js Site.
Mistakes I see often
The most familiar story: a shop rebuilds its site, changes every page address and forgets the redirects. A few weeks later the traffic from Google falls off a cliff. When an address changes, Google must be told where the old one went.
Second is keyword stuffing. A title like "Cheap air fryer, best air fryer, buy air fryer" is tiring to read, and Google may rewrite your title anyway. Write for the reader first.
Third is expecting results after two days. SEO usually takes weeks or months to show a difference, and nobody can promise you first place. If someone does, be careful.
Last is neglect. Products go out of stock, prices change, the address changes, and the page is not updated. Visitors get disappointed and leave.
What to do next
This week do three things: set up Search Console and verify the site, create or review your Business Profile, and rewrite the titles of your five best sellers. After two weeks, open Search Console and see what people searched to find you. Put the remaining technical items in a list for your developer. If you would like me to take a look, message me. I take on custom web and technical SEO projects.
