Consumer Health Websites
By Julia Salem
October 30, 2011
Our company has conducted research for numerous clients in the health industry. Along the way, we’ve developed a wide-range of research that has allowed us to analyze existing health websites.
The four major types of sites in this industry include content sites, content/community hybrid sites, community sites and digital wellness program sites. The current most popular health websites are WebMD, NIH, MedicineNet, Mayo Clinic and Drugs.com.
- The graph above shows health sites by unique visitors. Source: Compete.com April 2011.
Content focused sites
- Consumer Reports Health—This site has an excellent ratings system, which enhances its content credibility.
- Drugs.com—Has a highly usable RX Tools system.
- HealthGuru—Utilizes video to boost social and search metrics for its site and has been effectively redesigned to improve user experience.
- Healthline—Has an excellent content syndication system.
- Medical News Today—Has a very useful personalized alerts system.
Content/community hybrid sites
- EverydayHealth—Is one of the top health sites in social and mobile user experience.
- WebMD—Excels in brand awareness, digital presence, traffic and SEO rank.
Community sites
- HealthCentral—Has focused template specialist sites that provide users with a highly focused experience while enabling scale.
- Patients Like Me—Has excellent community engagement.
Digital wellness programs/sites
- Livestrong—Has extraordinarily rich interactivity and integration of content, function, and social networking into a compelling site experience for programmatic personal wellness.
- MedHelp—Knits up community and mobility with a highly personalized My MedHelp dashboard, including health management/tracking functionality.
For more information on health websites, request the full White Paper on Twitter @OxfordTech.