“I went through six different companies. They would end up not really doing the work.”
Watch how Trade My Gun went from 86 front-page keywords to over 2,500 and completely flipped its revenue model, with 80% of sales now coming through its own website instead of third-party marketplaces.
Trade My Gun is a paintball equipment company based in northeast Indiana, founded by Mike Schlemmer in 2005. The business buys, sells, and trades new and used paintball markers, gear, and accessories through its ecommerce site, third-party marketplaces, and a physical location with a 38,000 square foot warehouse. With over 20 years in the industry and more than 100,000 trades completed, Trade My Gun had built deep category knowledge and a loyal customer base. But the website was not pulling its weight. Most revenue still depended on third-party marketplaces, and six previous agency relationships had failed to change that.
3 Core Challenges
Trade My Gun Faced
1st Core Challenge:
Six previous agencies produced little to no results, and most pushed the work back onto a small team with no dedicated IT staff.
1st Strategic Shift:
Front-page keyword rankings grew from 86 to over 2,500, driving measurable traffic and revenue growth directly through the company’s own website.
2nd Core Challenge:
Only 20% of revenue came through the company’s own website. The rest depended on third-party marketplaces the business did not control.
2nd Strategic Shift:
The revenue split completely reversed. 80% of sales now come through the website, putting margins and customer relationships back in the business’s hands.
3rd Core Challenge:
New product launches were invisible in search. Buyers looking for the latest paintball markers had no way to find Trade My Gun online.
3rd Strategic Shift:
New models now show up on the front page of search results at launch, capturing buyers at the exact moment demand is highest.
The Problem
Trade My Gun had spent 20 years earning a reputation inside the paintball community. The product knowledge was deep, the warehouse operation was built for speed, and repeat customers kept coming back. But online, the business was nearly invisible. When a new paintball model launched, Mike would search for it and his site would not show up. Buyers who did not already know the brand had no path to find it.
The pattern with outside help repeated itself six times. A new agency would come in with promises, then push most of the work to his team. Six months later, traffic had not moved. And every time Mike checked in, he was working with a different person. No continuity. No accountability. No results. For a small operation without IT staff, where the website was the real growth engine, that cycle was hurting revenue every month.
The Solution
Front-page keyword rankings went from 86 to over 2,500 in two years. New product releases started showing up in search results right away. And the revenue split between the company’s website and third-party marketplaces completely reversed.
Before, 80% of sales ran through marketplaces. Two years later, 80% came through the website. That shift gave the business back control over its margins, its customer data, and its growth. And as the market moves toward AI-driven discovery, the work continues to keep Trade My Gun visible where buyers are increasingly starting their search.
I probably went through six different companies and they would end up not really doing the work, pushing most of the work back on me. The companies that I would use would not deliver. You’d work with them for six months and realize your traffic never moved. And every time you turned around you had a new person. 80% of our sales are now on our website. We completely reversed our model and KeenView is a big part of that. I’m able to spend my time on running my business with the confidence that I know the back end technical stuff is being handled.
Mike Schlemmer – CEO, TradeMyGun
Mike Schlemmer – CEO, TradeMyGun