Tariff volatility is reshaping global sourcing, yet many American manufacturers remain overlooked. In this episode, Bill Hunt and Bill Scully explain how U.S. suppliers can improve digital visibility, align with procurement search behavior, and position themselves as reliable, tariff-free alternatives to overseas competitors. Get actionable insights to help your business thrive in the reshoring era.
Key Takeaways
- Many U.S. manufacturers are invisible when people search looking for US suppliers.
- Procurement professionals will start searching using terms like “domestic supplier” and “tariff-free sourcing.”
- Many manufacturers mention “Made in USA” or “American Made” on their websites, but they often miss the opportunity to highlight it clearly on product pages.
- 74% of companies still cite cost as the main reshoring barrier, but clear messaging on total cost of ownership can offset this.
- Visual cues like “Made in USA” badges and alt-text reinforce your domestic identity for both buyers and search engines.
- Updating homepage content, product pages, and About sections with made in the USA helps connect with procurement buyers.
- Tip: Highlight key American specs, certifications, and supply capabilities to align with what purchasing teams are looking for.
- Paid search and directory listings are underused avenues for visibility—optimize both with U.S.-origin messaging.
- Proactive media monitoring (e.g., Google Alerts) can help identify sourcing opportunities in real time.
Catch the Full Episode
Youtube: https://youtu.be/5IuqmRoC8Ag?si=evovTEAetFwAl3Yj
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0wZg8LlFDiffSI1Tx4jLKC?si=Eq3Q-98pSMW3DCyEj4Oyxw
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-u-s-manufacturers-can-turn-tariff-instability-into/id1755789311?i=1000710119224
Show Note Links
Invisible at the Worst Time: Why American Manufacturers Are Losing the Tariff Opportunity
Tariffs, Trade-offs & Search Strategy: Should You Buy American or Source Smarter Abroad?
Transcript
Bill Scully (00:05)
Welcome to episode 34 of the International Web Effectiveness Podcast, where Bill Hunt and I, Bill Scully, focus on the strategies and techniques necessary to improve your web presence and manage your global websites.
In episode 33, we discussed geographical targeting and the challenges search engines face in understanding the target market of a website, as well as the difficulty in interpreting geographic signals. Similar issues come up in this episode, where we talk about the actions companies can take to be found by domestic companies looking for new suppliers.
The tariff situation has been fluctuating over the last month — from being perceived as catastrophic, to being dialed back, to targeting China again while offering different benefits to other regions. But Bill, you’ve created a couple of posts and articles on both sides of this issue — companies looking for suppliers and suppliers looking for buyers. Can you tell us a bit about why you did that?
Bill Hunt (01:17)
My thinking was that when companies are suddenly hit with a 145% tariff to bring in parts from China, they’re going to look elsewhere. We wanted to offer two paths: how to find domestic suppliers and what tools are available to do that, or alternatively, how to explore nearshore markets or places with lower tariffs.
This is similar to what happened during the Trump administration, when businesses began shifting operations to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Bangladesh to avoid Chinese supply chains. While researching this, I came across a news segment featuring a couple of American furniture makers — I think both were in Vermont, maybe one in New Hampshire — who said, “Everything about our product is American except the hardware — the fasteners, the little brass rings on drawers, the hinges.” And they could only get those at a viable price point from China.
One of them said they were actively looking for offshore alternatives, but that made me wonder — what if someone really wanted to source those items onshore? So I went to my dining room table, looked underneath, and examined the hardware. I found a brass carriage bolt and a few other components related to removing the table leaf. Then I went to Google and searched for “American-made brass carriage bolts.”
I titled the article I wrote: Invisible at the Worst Time: Why American Manufacturers Are Losing the Tariff Opportunity. My query was specific — “American-made brass carriage bolts” — and I found three paid ads. Only one of them even mentioned anything about being American-made. The other two didn’t. Even though my query clearly showed an intent to buy American-made products, these companies weren’t capitalizing on the opportunity to highlight that.
Even among the paid listings, none of them explicitly said “American-made.” I thought that was surprising. There were brands like Patriot, US Bolt, and a few others. They weren’t in the top five results but showed up further down. A lot of them had poor snippets — listing sizes instead of highlighting key differentiators like origin. As I browsed these sites to determine if they manufactured in the U.S., I couldn’t find any clear indication.
I checked their About pages, home pages — and as I mentioned before we started recording — one company had clearly used a patriotic WordPress theme. Everything was red, white, and blue — stars and stripes everywhere. But still, there was no actual mention of being American-made. Finally, buried in the founder’s history, it said he started the company 65 years ago in middle America. That was it. And I thought, wow — this is insane. Why aren’t companies making this a clear part of their messaging?
Bill Scully (04:39)
Right.
Bill Hunt (04:54)
Exactly. And that’s the missed opportunity. They’re waving the flag visually, but not clearly stating what matters to buyers — especially those looking to shift purchasing away from China.
Bill Hunt (05:24)
What I deduced was that there were three key problems I noticed.
Number one was a search terminology disconnect. Let’s start with that.
This issue had two sides: either companies weren’t saying they were American-made, or they were using brand-forward language that didn’t align with how people actually search. I’m the anti-marketer marketer—I don’t like flowery phrases, catchy taglines, or vague expressions like “Made in a Hard America.” What does that even mean? That exact phrase was on one site I found when I Googled “who makes anything in America.” These companies were promoted as American-made or assembled, but the only reference was that bold tagline on their factory page.
Others probably were American-made too, but again, there was a clear disconnect with search behavior. Now, if you consider procurement professionals, they’re looking for terms like “U.S. origin” or “domestic supplier”—specific indicators that products are being made or at least assembled in the U.S. That was the biggest gap I saw.
And in the article, we provide a range of recommendations, which we’ll get into.
Bill Scully (06:47)
Thank you. Yeah.
Bill Hunt (07:10)
You know, SEO is calling—it’s like 1998 all over again. And I get it. Some of these companies are probably multimillion-dollar manufacturers. Yet their websites look like they were thrown together by a cousin named Steve. I’ll just leave it at that.
Bill Scully (07:14)
Mm-hmm.
Bill Hunt (07:37)
Some clearly just paid a company to churn out a site that technically works—but again, there’s no reference to American-made. Only three of the top 10 results in Google for these phrases had schema. So there were no pricing elements, nothing structured in a way that Google could use or display. I didn’t find any sites using schema tags like “country of origin” or “country of assembly” on their product pages.
Bill Scully (08:17)
I didn’t know there was a country of assembly schema tag. Good to know.
Bill Hunt (08:21)
Yep, it’s out there, and you can flag it as “U.S.”
Same with the NAICS code—the North American Industry Classification System. For example, when I was in grad school, one of my goals was to build a tool to identify companies with exportable products. The idea was to analyze variables and then contact those companies to say, “Hey, you should consider exporting.” But backing into that information was painful.
Still, I did see some search queries tied to different industry codes. If you include that code, you’re effectively declaring, “Yes, I’m in this industry.”
Bill Scully (08:53)
Yeah.
Bill Hunt (09:11)
Exactly. People who are in the know will search using those.
Now, the third issue: I couldn’t find any companies—at least in the three verticals I examined—addressing what I call “messaging to the moment.” I didn’t specifically search for this, but in areas like carriage bolts, hardware components, and plastic gears, I found nothing.
Bill Scully (09:37)
You—
Bill Hunt (09:37)
—for instance, I saw an article where someone mentioned they needed a plastic gear component and could only source it from China. Yet no American manufacturers were highlighting that they could provide a more cost-effective option. In fact, the article I cite includes a survey from last month stating that 74% of companies say cost is the number one reason they aren’t sourcing American-made products.
Bill Scully (10:17)
Yeah, I’ve got some experience with that. I worked with a large tarp manufacturer—it was all American-made. They weren’t what I’d call premium-priced, but they struggled to convert new visitors. We think it was mostly due to pricing and a lack of brand recognition.
In that case, the site was absolutely clear about being American-made, but it didn’t help sales. On the other hand, I have another client that did better, largely due to the Build America, Buy America initiative. That’s part of the Biden administration’s effort to ensure more infrastructure spending goes to American companies. Makes sense—you don’t want to rely on foreign suppliers if political relations break down.
Bill Hunt (11:26)
Totally.
But the question is—did they even look? Not necessarily the end users, but the people assembling or sourcing components. Have they explored alternatives? That might be the more interesting question. Maybe they haven’t looked at this at all.
I read an article on Sunday in the paper. It was about a pencil company in Tennessee. The owner said right off the bat, “I needed to lower my costs.” So, he gets poplar wood from China—it’s cheaper than getting the same wood in the United States.
Bill Scully (12:15)
That’s amazing. Just think about the logistics of getting a piece of wood shipped here. Never mind the fuel costs and everything else involved in transport. The logistics alone—and it’s still cheaper? That’s nuts.
Bill Hunt (12:21)
Right. Now, the graphite—I understand that.
Look at some of the poultry companies. They’re slaughtering chickens here, flash-freezing them, then sending them to China to be processed. China takes the feet and whatever else they want, handles all the slicing and packaging, and then ships the meat back here.
How is that even cheaper? But apparently, 74% of people cite cost as the reason. My question is: did they even try to source it domestically?
The pencil company guy also said there’s no American manufacturer of graphite for pencils. China dominates that market. So it’s the only option. And he’s saying he might have to shut down—because who’s going to pay a premium?
The first thing people would say is, “Who even uses pencils anymore?” Well, anyone taking the SAT or other Scantron-type tests still needs them.
Bill Scully (13:50)
Right. We got a voter card, you know.
Bill Hunt (13:56)
People are still using pencils. Golfers still use those nubby little ones. That’s how the company had to diversify—by targeting niche markets like stubby pencils and contractor pencils, those flat ones.
Anyway, you mentioned a couple of things. The big question is, if you find a source, can you…
Bill Scully (13:59)
Yeah. Good workers.
Bill Hunt (14:25)
Can you eliminate some of the other variables? It’s about fluidity. At one point, we were down to 30% sourcing from China, and then back up again. Companies are bouncing around because they don’t know where to turn.
I’ve talked to people whose original manufacturer won’t even talk to them anymore—won’t make a deal because of the uncertainty.
There are other issues too: tariff fluctuations, delivery times, shipping congestion. The Port of Long Beach is down, I think, 35%. So you might not even get your goods out of China easily.
Then there’s the issue of rule of law, enforceable contracts—all of it. So, even paying a slight premium to source domestically might eliminate a lot of that pain and uncertainty. That could be a real reason to consider buying from the U.S.
The second part of that article—which I still need to publish—talks about alternative markets and nearshoring.
Can you source from somewhere nearby? If you consider nearshoring, that usually means Canada or Mexico. But they’ve been hit hard too. Still, can you get it from somewhere else?
Like you said, that opens a whole new can of worms: contracts, trade relations, tariffs. What if we raise tariffs on that country out of political tension? All the same issues come back.
At the end of the day, there were three main things I noticed that weren’t in place. Even if you were offering a version of the product with a 145% tariff reduction, you might not get noticed—because people just aren’t searching that way.
So we came up with a variety of recommendations.
Anything you’d add—not necessarily from a “buy American for America’s sake” angle—but just from a practical, economic point of view?
Bill Scully (16:57)
Yeah, I was trying to uncover some intent behind “Buy USA,” but I really think the true intent is to replace the supplier or reduce costs.
Bill Hunt (17:08)
That’s exactly what it is.
That’s why there was urgency in getting this out—people are facing this issue right now, and it’s even showing up in the news.
Bill Scully (17:16)
Yeah.
And, I mean, companies don’t necessarily want to lean into being a low-cost provider, but this is a great opportunity to gain new customers.
Normally, when you visit a website, there’s no indication of pricing. It might make sense to include something in your branding like “high quality, reasonable cost.”
Bill Hunt (17:57)
Right—or target messaging around those specific concerns.
One of the recommendations we have is what we call tariff-specific landing pages. These would include things like “tariff-free manufacturing” or “U.S. alternative to Chinese
Another idea we recommend is adding a calculator. Even if you don’t include exact pricing, you could show price ranges—something like:
“Here’s what the product might cost with a 25% tariff versus our price.”
If you’re 145% more expensive than a Chinese equivalent, that’s a bigger business issue. But maybe it’s a matter of scale or complexity.
Bill Scully (18:38)
Great. Yeah.
Bill Hunt (18:52)
Another factor is access to resources.
In one case, we were talking about brass and metal. In others, it’s plastics.
There are certain types of injection molding where one manufacturer said their product could only be made in China.
Another company said it could potentially be made in Vietnam. But there’s no one in the U.S. doing that level of plastic molding with such high tolerance. That was his exact wording.
But to your point—
Bill Scully (19:32)
Yeah, I get it.
There’s a real issue here. I hope it works out, but Americans just aren’t manufacturing workers anymore.
People don’t want to work in factories.
Even if someone tried to start that kind of company here, it would probably take two to three years just to get the machines shipped in.
Then you’d have to train people who actually want to do the work. I don’t know—it just seems extremely difficult for these manufacturing businesses.
Bill Hunt (20:10)
It is.
I wrote an article I’ve shared with friends who were either confused about tariffs or completely in favor of them, saying we should just deal with it.
I haven’t posted it publicly yet.
It’s probably not the right episode for that discussion, but I do think there’s opportunity here.
If you manufacture something and have any kind of capacity, you want people to know about it.
I loved what you said earlier—many companies don’t even show pricing.
Take bolts, for example. I couldn’t find anyone who listed a price—$2 per hundred, per kilo, per pound, per whatever.
That’s where a calculator might come in—just something that says, “Hey, we might be able to beat that tariff-inflated price.”
And then around the same time, the U.S. introduced—
Bill Scully (21:16)
Mm.
Bill Hunt (21:37)
Any non-American flagged ship that comes into a U.S. port to offload foreign goods now pays a fee of a million dollars per port visit. I believe that goes into effect either now or next week—sometime in May. So that includes Chinese ships or any other non-American flagged vessels. Here’s the interesting thing—pop quiz. And I didn’t…
Bill Scully (21:56)
And this is just for non-American flagged ships, right?
Bill Hunt (22:06)
Triple-check this, but I was curious when I heard that statement. The person said it, and I thought—how many American-flagged commercial ships do we actually have?
Bill Scully (22:19)
I was just wondering that myself. I have no idea. Nine?
Bill Hunt (22:22)
No.
And the few we do have operate mostly in the Caribbean. We have a rule—similar to “Buy American”—that says to bring goods into U.S. territories like the Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico, it has to be on an American-flagged ship.
So here’s the thing—we just don’t have them. And now, shipping companies—or more specifically, the owners of these non-American ships—are being hit with a million-dollar fee just to enter a port like Long Beach, Virginia, Baltimore—every major port.
Bill Scully (23:05)
For every port?
They probably go to two or three, maybe more.
Bill Hunt (23:12)
Yep. And that cost gets amortized across all the containers on the ship. So there’s a whole range of implications. Again, build a calculator, put something up there. Some of the ideas we talked about: creating tariff-specific landing pages, highlighting business advantages, comparing total landing costs with and without tariffs…
Talk about supply chain reliability, reduced shipping costs, faster lead times, ease of doing business. Add a calculator to show the real-time cost impacts if possible. And then, over time, create case studies to demonstrate how you’ve helped new customers mitigate these tariffs.
And then there’s the perception challenge—74% of the people interviewed said they automatically believe American products are more expensive. So how do we offset that belief—or the reality?
Well, that’s when we need to lean into things like total value, risk reduction, resilience, broader business advantages, and the fact that you can say it’s American-made or assembled in America.
Bill Scully (24:19)
Yeah.
You know, the nice thing is these manufacturing companies already have customers. There’s a reason for that.
They’re also often reluctant to share who those customers are, so there may be opportunities—not just to highlight the products, but also showcase who their customers are.
Bill Hunt (24:40)
Right. Exactly.
And especially if people are actively searching for this, you want to make sure you’re being found. Like on product pages—your client already has this, right? Integrate things into titles like “Made in the USA,” “Tariff-Free Shipping,” “American-Made Quality.”
Use those phrases as headings. Try to integrate this messaging—but don’t overdo it.
Bill Scully (25:24)
Yeah. Yeah.
Bill Hunt (25:24)
…without over-spamming this, but using it where it makes sense. An interesting approach is similar to the organic produce example—create a “Made in USA” badge. They’re available online; you can download or license one. Display it prominently, and let customers know these are American-made components. Just like you mentioned, send this information to your clients so they can communicate that they’re using American-made parts.
Include descriptions of your U.S. manufacturing process—either on your About page or your Manufacturing page. It’s surprising how many companies don’t tell their American manufacturing story. They don’t mention that, for example, they started in 1929 after the Depression, making one thing and now making another. That origin story matters.
Showcase the factory. Show the employees. Show the process. Talk about the origin of your materials. You can also include memberships or relevant industry classifications like NAICS codes and harmonized tariff codes. All of this adds…
Bill Scully (26:22)
Making horseshoes. Right.
Bill Hunt (26:46)
…credibility and boosts your site’s authority.
Bill Scully (26:50)
That’s something I’ve never heard of—the harmonized tariff code.
Bill Hunt (26:54)
It’s an international system. Every product category—and even subcategories—has a harmonized tariff code. That code determines the specific tariff applied. It’s fascinating. For example, take bananas. There are different codes depending on whether they’re ripe bananas, dried, puréed, or some other variation. Even organic bananas have their own code. And each version has its own tariff.
Historically, that’s how it worked. If the U.S. didn’t have a big banana-growing industry, we were like, “Sure, bring them in.” But take tomatoes—that’s where it gets interesting. Florida is lobbying to block tomato imports from Mexico. But Florida mainly grows large slicing tomatoes, the kind you use on sandwiches. Those aren’t the same as the smaller ones used in pasta sauce or canned tomatoes.
So, thanks to the thoughtful application of harmonized codes and tariffs, we can allow the import of smaller tomatoes while protecting the market for the larger, flavorless ones we grow here. Send your cards and letters. I await them.
Bill Scully (28:26)
Yeah. Yeah. OK. Great. [laughs]
Bill Hunt (28:54)
And that’s the reason these codes exist. I’ve even seen searches for NAICS codes and harmonized codes by people trying to find manufacturers for specific products. Later, we’ll talk about being listed in directories like the Thomas Register.
We’ve also discussed creating pages that highlight tariff-specific or “Buy American” messaging. That means tweaking your product pages: add origin or assembly schema tags, include them in your product ID tags, revise your title tags and headers to emphasize the “Made in America” element.
You should also update your search campaigns. This really surprised me: out of all the queries I ran, I found only one company that mentioned “Made in the USA” in a paid ad—even when my search term included that phrase.
If you want customers to choose you for your American-made angle, mention it in your paid search. Even if you can’t update your whole website, you can at least create an ad group focused on that message. So when someone searches “American made [your product],” your ad shows up.
Bill Scully (30:31)
Yeah, well—there are a dozen different ways you could phrase it, right? “American built,” “domestic manufactured,” “crafted in the USA,” “born and built in the USA.” Those are all options.
You wouldn’t necessarily want to optimize a page for those terms organically, but you could use them in a paid search campaign. Just create a long list: “100% American materials,” “made in USA parts,” and so on—then run that through a paid campaign.
Bill Hunt (30:53)
Exactly.
We even included terms like “made in USA screws for medical equipment” or “USA-made product for OEMs.” Again, when people are searching with those phrases in that product category—boom—you show up right in front of them, often at the top of the search results. I think it’s a brilliant use of paid search.
The next strategy is industry directories—ThomasNet, GlobalSpec, IndustryNet. These are places companies often turn to when looking for specific components. You can filter by region—say, just North America—and even exclude Canadian companies to focus on American suppliers.
And then, for sales teams, set up monitoring tools like Google Alerts or use AI agents like Perplexity. For example, after we talked about the American furniture manufacturers, I did a follow-up search. Perplexity already had the article indexed and cited as a reference.
What I’m saying is: media monitoring matters. Set up search queries to find companies in the industries you serve—especially where there’s evidence of tariff-related challenges.
That way, you get a list of companies that are actively saying they’re being impacted by tariffs. If your product or service can help them, you’ve got a solid starting point to begin outreach. Call them, email them—”Hey, we make brass placards,” or “We manufacture these components.”
One company mentioned they assemble medical equipment and use specific screws. If you produce those kinds of screws, that’s your lead. They’ve already indicated they’re struggling with sourcing or pricing—that’s your opening.
And here’s the key point I want to close on: now is the time.
As you said earlier, Bill—if you can get just a few of these folks to try you out, you’ve started the relationship. Maybe they don’t continue because your pricing or quality doesn’t match their needs—but at least you’ve been introduced. You’ve opened that door.
Bill Scully (33:50)
Exactly. And depending on what they’re buying, they could even change their process. Some companies might be buying hardware from one supplier and plating from another—but there are U.S.-based companies that do both.
The point is, everyone’s out there searching. You want to make sure you’re the one they find.
Bill Hunt (34:13)
Absolutely. And check out the article—we’ve listed several of these strategies over on International Webmastery. We’ll also be putting together a quick checklist to help you make sure you’re covering all your bases.
And as always, if you need help, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d be glad to work with you on capturing any potential opportunity—especially in light of all the unpredictability out there right now.
Bill Scully (34:45)
Yeah, and like we said in the last episode—just do a quick search: “[Your company name] is made in the United States.” See what comes up.
All right, that’s it for today. Thanks, Bill.
And one last thing—we’d really appreciate it if you could take a moment to rate and review the podcast. Your feedback helps keep us going and shapes future episodes.
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Bill Hunt (35:26)
Cool. See you next time.
Bill Scully (35:28)
All right. Thanks, Bill. Take care.