Portfolio · SEO + Redesign

From invisible to #1 — a redesign and SEO strategy for Canada’s paintball marker specialist

WC Marker had real differentiators — exclusive MacDev distribution and a Certified Pre-Owned used-gear program. Online, none of it was findable. Nine months later, the store ranks #1 in Canada for the searches that actually sell markers.

Client

WC Marker
Airdrie, AB

Industry

E-commerce · Specialty sporting goods

What we did

Website Redesign · SEO Strategy · Content · Site Management

Engagement

October 2025 – July 2026

WC Marker homepage redesign — dark tactical design with lime accents and featured MacDev marker

The challenge

WC Marker is a specialty paintball retailer with genuine competitive edges: a Certified Pre-Owned program for used markers, and exclusive Canadian distribution rights for MacDev — one of the sport’s most respected marker brands.

Online, none of that was visible. When the engagement began in October 2025, the site ran on a generic template that undercut the brand, had no analytics, no Search Console, no structured data, a “B” performance grade — and Google visibility for exactly one thing: its own name. If a shopper didn’t already know “WC Marker,” they’d never find it.

“The goal was to look like a business — not like some guy on Facebook.”
Malcolm McKenzie, Owner — WC Marker

The approach

Foundation first. GA4 & Search Console installation, hosting migration, SEOPress, schema markup, and performance work lifting the site from a B to an A grade.
A redesign built to convert skeptics. A dark, tactical brand system with clear navigation and trust signals designed for the wary used-gear buyer.

Theme-driven SEO. Seven keyword themes anchored by the two differentiators — the MacDev Authority Hub and the Certified Pre-Owned marketplace — tracked across 80 keywords.
Expert-led content. Owner interviews turned into E-E-A-T articles under Malcolm's byline: the MacDev story, used-marker buying guides, CPO inspection standards.

The results · Oct 2025 – Jul 2026

The differentiators now rank.

The site went from appearing almost exclusively for its own name to owning the searches that sell markers in Canada — with the engagement’s best month coming last.

+71%

Growth in Google search impressions — clicks +16% and impressions +31% in the final month alone

11 / 27

Keywords in Google's top 3 / top 10, of 80 tracked — six sitting at #1

4×

Growth in AI-search referrals (ChatGPT & similar) in the final month, at 71% engagement

/// Live Google positions at engagement close

#1used paintball guns canada17% CTR

#1macdev dealer canadaexclusive-distributor term

#1used paintball gear canadajumped 8 → 1

#1paintball trade in canadasell-your-gear hub

#2macdev canada · buy macdev canada · paintball jersey canada

#3certified pre-owned paintball · macdev cyclone · used paintball markers

Positions: independent rank tracking, desktop · Canada, July 13, 2026, supplemented by live Google Search Console averages. The entire used-gear cluster — every variation — holds positions 1–3: a keyword monopoly on the store's core differentiator.

Organic became the quality channel

A 68% engagement rate and 5+ pages per visit over six months — and once bot noise subsided, organic drove 58% of every pageview on the site. Real shoppers, browsing inventory.

Out-ranking the established players

WC Marker closed the engagement holding a better average position than long-standing Canadian paintball retailers — while the category leader's top-10 count fell in the final month, WC Marker's held.

The takeaway

WC Marker’s edge was always real — it just wasn’t findable, and the site didn’t look like the professional business it actually was. A redesign built for trust and technical SEO, paired with nine months of theme-driven search work, turned those differentiators into #1 rankings and the highest-quality traffic channel the store has. The trajectory tells its own story: the engagement’s best month was its last.

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