In the battle for unique visitors, Waterfront Media's Everyday Health has surpassed long-time champion WebMD to lead the online consumer health space.

Ben Wolin, CEO of Waterfront Media, told MM&M that the merger with Revolution Health in early October was a major factor in the company's ascension. Another factor, said Wolin, is that Everday Health—in keeping with its name—has constructed a portfolio of products that focus on daily health usage. “Our products, content and tools encourage visitors to come back daily—to check a pregnancy calendar, or to use a diet tool or diabetes tool, for example,” he said.

According to comScore's Media Metrix data, released in mid-November, Everyday Health garnered 25.7 million unique visitors in October, compared with 19.6 million for WebMD. In terms of average daily visitors, Everyday Health racked up 1.5 million during October, compared with WebMD's 1 million, according to comScore's Media Metrix.

WebMD announced the acquisition of Quality Health Network in September, however. The Quality Health Network is positioned eighth in comScore's October unique visitor count, at 7.3 million. According to Peter Burch, vice president of sales at QualityHealth.com, WebMD is currently undergoing due diligence for the acquisition, with the deal “closing any day now.” Burch said WebMD's numbers do not reflect Quality Health Network's unique visitor count. When the acquisition is finalized, the deal will “catapult [WebMD] ahead of Everyday Health,” said Burch. A combined total of Quality Health Network and WebMD's numbers for October would equal 26.9 million unique visitors, a full 1.2 million more visitors than Everyday Health's 25.7 million.

Other leaders in the space, according to comScore's data for October, are as follows: AOL Health (10.4 million); About.com Health (9.1 million); MSN Health (8.8 million); Yahoo! Health (8.6 million); NIH.gov (8.1 million); Walgreen Co. (6.4 million); and rounding out the top ten, UnitedHealth Group (5.1 million).

Waterfront Media's properties include the flagship Everyday Health Network, as well as Revolutionhealth.com, Carepages.com, WhatToExpect.com, SouthBeachDiet.com and 21 others. In late October, the company announced a partnership to provide Yahoo! Health with content, which attributes and links said content back to Waterfront Media sources.

“We'll continue to grow the category,” said Wolin. “We've got lots of running room.”