What They Did
WebMD was the dominant health information website where people looked up symptoms, medical conditions, and treatment options. It was the first stop for millions of health-related searches.
How LLMs Killed Them
Users switched to asking ChatGPT and other AI chatbots health questions directly instead of browsing WebMD articles. Google's AI Overviews also siphoned traffic by answering health queries directly in search results, eliminating the need to click through.
Timeline
- 2024-2025: Monthly visits dropped from 122M to 69.5M (-43.1% within one year).
- Google searches for the site down 15.2%.
- December 2025: Google core update reduced WebMD visibility by ~43%.
By the Numbers
- Monthly visits dropped from 122M to 69.5M (-43%)
- Google searches for the site down 15.2%
- Acknowledged a "perfect storm of AI disruption"