Antech Diagnostics
Antech Diagnostics new Unified WordPress Blocks Website
Unifying 5 website properties into one website
Antech Diagnostics is the second biggest global producers of animal health tests, if you have ordered meds for your pet chances are pretty good you have done business with them. At the heart of Antech Diagnostics are two foundational truths — a deep affection for animals and a desire to see them live longer, healthier lives. They are committed to supporting veterinary care teams with a flexible, can-do spirit resulting in healthy pets, happy pet owners, and a high-performing practice. The team at FirstTracks Marketing wanted to make sure their new website presence helped accomplish those goals as well. We were challenged with the project to combine their flagship property antechdiagnostics.com with four other separate websites that were previous extensions and acquisitions of Antech Diagnostics that they wanted to consolidate into one unified experience. Our team worked on an all new design, brand new Guttenberg blocks based theme framework and helped manage the property transition to ensure SEO remained intact and flourished post launch of the new platform.
Website redesign around newly refreshed branding guidelines
Antech Diagnostics needed their new website to clearly communicate their newly refreshed brand identity and handle a wide range of content. Working closely with their team and following their brand guidelines, we created a cohesive design that reflected their updated visual identity.
The heart of the website’s design system is modularity. We built a collection of block patterns that work together seamlessly, giving the flexibility to create a wide variety of layouts. Each block comes with multiple options and color modes, allowing Antech Diagnostics to mix and match components to fit any type of content.
This modular approach means that every page feels consistent and on-brand, while giving the team the freedom to adapt layouts to different needs. The result is a website that is both visually cohesive and flexible, making it easier for Antech Diagnostics to communicate their brand and engage their users.
Designing a Unified Navigation Experience
To make a unified experience successful, we focused on streamlining the different user journeys from the original 5 websites. The challenge was to organize a large volume of information in a way that felt intuitive, while ensuring users could easily find what they need and always understand where they are within the site.
We organized the main navigation by department, allowing each section to feel familiar, similar to navigating the original websites, while still functioning as part of a single, unified experience.
Each department features a mega menu to accommodate a large number of links without overwhelming the user. Once a user enters a department, a secondary navigation appears beneath the main menu, displaying all related links within that section. This secondary menu remains sticky as users browse, keeping key navigation options visible and accessible at all times.
This system creates a clear sense of orientation and allows each department to function like its own distinct section of the site. It mirrors the familiarity of the original standalone websites while still delivering a cohesive overall experience.
Complete theme rebuild using core blocks by WordPress
Goodbye Design “Debt,” Hello Consistency
Moving away from a classic WordPress setup was all about cleaning up the clutter. In the old system, making a small change often felt like pulling a thread that could unravel the whole design, leading to inconsistent fonts and mismatched colors across different pages. By switching to a modern Block Theme, we’ve traded that “guessing game” for a rock-solid design system. Now, the entire site follows a single set of rules. This means every button, heading, and layout looks exactly the way it’s supposed to, providing a seamless and professional experience for every visitor without the need for constant manual tweaks.
Building with Speed and Style
The real game-changer for the day-to-day workflow has been the introduction of predefined block patterns. Instead of staring at a blank page and trying to figure out how to arrange elements, the team can now “plug and play” with beautiful, pre-designed sections. We’ve even included different style variations for these patterns—like a quick toggle to switch a section from a light to a dark background—while keeping the branding perfectly intact. It gives the content team the freedom to be creative and build new pages in minutes, all while knowing they can’t “break” the site’s polished look.
SEO Preparation & Improvements for Keeping Traffic Intact and Growing
One of the more challenging aspects of this project was to make sure that traffic loss was kept to an absolute minimum. With a site as large and highly trafficked as Antech Diagnostics main website would have been a big job on it’s own, add in the additional 4 website properties that were also folded into the main site, needless to say this was no small undertaking. We used the Rank Math plugin for WordPress to help with our redirect prep and optimization efforts in relaunching the new site. As you can see from the graph we have shared here from their dashboard reports, not only did we not lose any traffic but the new site build took off and helped their traffic levels skyrocket 309% in their first year of working with our rebuilt platform while experiencing a less than 1% loss of total traffic between all 5 sites combined!
We had a great experience working with FirstTracks. They supported the launch of our new website and did an excellent job managing multiple additional international sites for us, keeping everything organized and consistent across regions.
Beyond web support, they were a strong partner in shaping and managing our paid advertising strategy, bringing thoughtful recommendations while staying flexible as our needs evolved. The team was always collaborative, open to new ideas, and responsive throughout the process. We appreciated their strategic mindset and hands-on approach, and would recommend them to any team looking for a reliable, forward-thinking marketing partner.
Solutions
- Services Provided
- Paid Advertising
- Search Engine Optimization
- Website Design
- Website Development
- Ongoing Website Support
- Technology
- WordPress
- Guttenberg Blocks
- Advanced Custom Fields Pro
- Rank Math
- Google Ads
- Meta Ads
