WebMD Success Story: How The Site Gets 192 Million Organic Visitors a Month
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Who is your trusted source when looking for credible health information and trustworthy health and medical news online?
If you are like one of its more than 192 million visitors, it must be WebMD.
Contents
Source: Ahrefs
Founded in 1998, WebMD is a known health information website that publishes health topics, drug information, and physicians’ blogs on specific topics.
After reporting $705 million in revenue in 2016, the private equity firm Internet Brands purchased WebMD Health Corporation for about $2.8 billion.
Let’s find out more about the website.
How Much Traffic Does WebMD Get?
According to SimilarWeb, WebMD receives as much as 85.31% of its traffic from organic search and 12.76% from direct search traffic.
Source: Similarweb
Their dedicated medical team of more than 100 doctors and experts in various specialties, and an expert editorial team, work to provide updated and the best health information to help you live a healthier life.
They have thus grown into a high-level authority health site most people turn to for their medical and health information. Now let’s take a look at the type of keywords they target.
Top Ranking Keywords
Being a health information website, it’s not surprising that they have more informational content. While the site has a small percentage of pages with commercial and transactional content, its informative content does most of the heavy work of generating traffic.
Source: Semrush
According to Semrush, WebMD relies mainly on non-branded keywords.
Below you'll see an Ahrefs screenshot of some of their top pages which include topics like laser hair removal and ovulation calculator. The most targeted keyword seems to be covid symptoms, which isn’t surprising considering it’s the most discussed topic across the web for the past few years.
Moving down the line, you see that omicron symptoms are also a widely searched term. Once again, it’s thanks to its recent outbreak. One thing is for sure; these non-branded keywords focus more on solving the questions many have about the current pandemic, along with some people looking for pregnancy help.
Source: Ahrefs
Top Ranking Pages
Here’s a look at some of their top ten pages, which are informational articles targeted at people seeking answers and information about various health issues.
Source: Ahrefs
One of Their Most Successful Pages
Their top ranking page in the US is for their baby health tool, the ovulation calculator.
Source: WebMD
Webmd offers this free ovulation calculator which proves helpful for women planning to have a baby. Not only is this a useful tool for the women, but it also serves as a good link magnet for the website.
This page functions as a go-to source for other related websites to link to, by providing a tool and solution to their readers.
Social Statistics
With regards to social followers, as Facebook has close to 2 million followers, it’s no surprise that Facebook it’s its top social media traffic. Reddit and Twitter come next in line.
The Site's Most Powerful Links
Powerful backlinks also play a role in the site’s massive traffic generation. WebMD has tons of powerful links reaching its pages. One page worth mentioning is NY Times linking the site to their parenting blog.
Source: Ahrefs
WebMD has also done a great job of building links to top-priority competitor pages.
Source: Ahrefs
Tools Used In The Site
WebMD runs on Salesforce and uses software like Adobe for marketing and analytics and Cloudflare for content delivery.
How Does WebMD Make Money?
An authority in health and medical news and information, webmd.com makes money through website ads, affiliate partners, and editorial content. Their top affiliate programs include:
Source; Ahrefs
Result-Oriented Web Content Practices
The clarity WebMD offers its readers dramatically contributes to its increased popularity. They have clearly segregated their health and medical information into different categories, making it easier for a reader to find the required health or medical information.
WebMD doesn’t just provide information and answers to queries.
The site also provides a list of various tools and apps that prove helpful in treating and finding a solution to a problem. For example, they have an ovulation calculator (also a popular keyword) to help those trying to get pregnant and have healthy recipes for those who want to live healthily or lose weight.
The ads are well placed on the sides and tops of web pages so as to not distract the reader. The pages also load quickly, giving no reason for readers to leave the website. And with their newsletters, readers who subscribe end up as return visitors.
Founder’s Vision
Source: Entrepreneur.com
According to the Wall Street Journal, Jeff Arnold, the founder, and CEO of WebMD, came up with the name WebMD because he “wanted a name that said quickly what we did because there's so much brand confusion out there. Web says the Internet, and MD stands for trust.”
The result?
This vision of his is what made WebMD so easily searched, which in turn helped increase the number of website visitors.
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