As new US tariffs come into play, many businesses are bracing for the ripple effects across supply chains, product pricing, and consumer behavior.

For companies that rely heavily on imported goods, these policy shifts can lead to rising costs, slower purchase cycles, and shrinking brand loyalty.

In such a turbulent landscape, your SEO strategy can play a vital role in sustaining visibility, adapting to shifting demand, and protecting market share.

To explore how SEO can be used as both a reactive and proactive tool during times of economic disruption, we spoke with Chris Rothwell, Head of Growth at SALT.agency. Below, he shares his insights on consumer behavior, the value of organic visibility, and how businesses can stay agile as markets evolve.

How do you see the new US tariffs impacting demand and purchasing behavior, especially for products that rely heavily on imports?

Demand is likely to significantly decrease, especially around non-essential or price-sensitive goods. Consumers will be more meticulous when purchasing, especially heavily imported products. This will result in a longer lag time between discovery, awareness and purchase.

Consumers will be doing more research, resulting in a more cost-conscious and informed consumer base. Demand for cheaper alternatives or domestic made products will increase, changing purchasing behaviour and reducing brand loyalty.

For businesses expecting increased costs due to tariffs, where does SEO fit into their strategy for protecting or growing market share?

When business costs increase, how and where a business spends their money becomes a crucial business decision. If cost-cutting is needed, Paid Media becomes the easy target, but not having a strong ‘fall-back’ in terms of a SEO and Content strategy, a business risks long term growth potential and opens for competitors or alternatives to steal market share. There is a fine balance between reducing budget on Paid Ads (PPC, Paid Social, etc.) and losing visibility in the SERPs.

Having a strong, foundational SEO approach will allow businesses to reduce their dependence on Paid Media, defend against cheaper alternative products and clearly position themselves as a trusted brand that is worth the [increased] cost. Having a strong SEO and Content strategy is always important in a media mix, while it can also supplement and replace the need for heavy Paid Media activations.

How can businesses use SEO data, like keyword trends or search intent shifts, to identify early signs of consumer response to price increases or product availability changes caused by tariffs?

Data-led understanding of an evolving situation like increased tariffs, should be the backbone of a businesses view and response to tariffs. Using SEO metrics like search intent or shifting keyword trends will act as an “early-warning system” of sorts and will help a business understand the changing consumer sentiment.

These can then help any business to respond and adjust their messaging accordingly.

Keyword research can help identify changing consumer needs when terms like ‘alternative to’, ‘cheap’, or ‘refurbished’.

Brands, especially those in heavily-impacted tariff categories, will likely see an increase in search trends moving from product specific to more generic ones. Identifying this trend allows a brand to respond to it on their site and highlight key values of the product, provide alternatives or expand into a used/refurbished category.

What SEO tactics can help companies stay competitive if they need to pivot towards domestic alternatives or adjust their product positioning?

While the USA is one major-market, expanding into other international markets is a major opportunity for companies to stay competitive. Utilising a strong International SEO strategy to reach and expand into additional markets can help counter the impact of the US tariffs.

A defined and clear approach to Content will help with shifting search intent and allow companies to rank for informational queries as much as transactional ones.

Businesses could also consider refining their domestic SEO strategy, especially if they are pivoting toward U.S.-made products. Focusing on localised content, regional product attributes, and made-in-USA messaging can help capture more specific segments of intent-driven traffic. Meanwhile, product pages should be updated to reflect changes in availability, origin, or value proposition, reinforcing transparency and trust during uncertain times.

In times of uncertainty, like with new tariffs, how important is it to update content, product descriptions, or messaging to match changing customer concerns?

Massive. Be clear with your customer on what they can expect, how their business with you will be impacted.

Having the content to answer and ease your customers’ concerns will ease their blockers to buying from you. Stronger proposition values and clearer information will be imperative to eliminating customer concerns as much as possible. Providing a strategic response across all site content makes for a more informed customer and one who is more likely to be loyal to that company or product as a result.

Whether you’re facing rising costs, changing customer behavior, or looking to expand into new markets, SALT.agency can help you stay visible and competitive.
Get in touch with our team to discuss how we can support your growth.