What does a health editor need from you that they cannot get from a press release?
The answer is a credential they can print, a claim they can verify, and a reader benefit they can explain in one line. Everyday Health has built its whole operation around those three things, and anyone wondering how to get featured on Everyday Health has to start there. Brands that pitch products without them hit a wall, no matter how good the product is. Experts who pitch with all three get called back.
This guide covers how the site produces its stories, the five realistic paths in, and the mistakes that end a relationship with a health desk before it starts.
How Everyday Health builds a story
Everyday Health is one of the oldest consumer health sites on the web. Its copyright line runs from 1996, and the company today is a Ziff Davis property. The site covers conditions, nutrition, fitness, mental health, and healthy living, and it publishes both evergreen guides and news.
Two parts of its process matter for anyone trying to get in.
The first is the editorial team. Everyday Health’s editorial policy says its editors are subject matter experts who follow the latest research, and that they seek the opinions of medical experts, patient advocates, and patients to shape content. That sentence lists every role a pitch can fill. You are either an expert, an advocate, or a patient with a story worth telling.
The second is review. The site says its Health Expert Network includes more than 100 board-certified doctors and credentialed healthcare professionals who review content to keep it current and medically accurate. Reviewer bios appear on articles, sometimes with marks like Castle Connolly Top Doctor. Every factual claim you make will pass in front of someone like that.
Put those together and the logic is clear. A writer drafts with input from experts and patients. A credentialed reviewer checks it. Anything that cannot survive the check does not run. Your pitch has to make the writer’s job easier and the reviewer’s job painless.
Timing differs by story type. News stories tied to a new study move in hours or days, so a researcher or clinician who can comment the same day a paper publishes has an edge. Evergreen guides on conditions and nutrition are updated on a schedule and reviewed again when the science changes, which is why an expert quoted once can stay on a page for years. Seasonal pieces, like allergy season, flu shots, or holiday stress, are planned weeks ahead.
Everyday Health also publishes a product testing policy, which signals that its commerce content follows rules about how products are evaluated. If you sell a product, read that page before you pitch. It tells you what testers will care about.
Path one and two: the Credential Ladder
The first two paths are for people with professional credentials, and they sit on what we call the Credential Ladder. The higher your rung, the more doors open.
At the top are board-certified physicians with an academic or hospital affiliation. They can be quoted on almost any topic in their specialty and are the pool the Health Expert Network draws from. Next come other licensed clinicians: nurse practitioners, pharmacists, psychologists, licensed therapists, registered dietitians. They are quoted constantly within their scope. Below them are certified non-clinical experts, such as personal trainers with recognized certifications, sleep coaches with formal training, and certified diabetes educators. They get quoted on practical how-to pieces. At the bottom are uncredentialed founders and wellness influencers, who rarely get quoted on health claims at all.
Path one is joining the review side. The Health Expert Network page invites you to learn more, and practicing physicians and credentialed professionals can reach out about reviewing. Review work does not usually mean a byline, but it puts your name and bio on articles, and that bio links to a profile on the site. For a clinician building authority, that is valuable. A reviewer bio on a major health site is the kind of third-party credential that shows up when patients, journalists, and AI assistants research your name.
Before you reach out, tidy your own footprint. Make sure your hospital or practice bio, your board certification, and your LinkedIn profile all match. Reviewers are vetted, and an editor checking your background should find one consistent story in under a minute.
Path two is becoming a regular source. Writers keep lists of experts who answer fast and quote well. Getting on those lists means being found, which leads to the next section.
Knowing your rung is the real first step in how to get featured on Everyday Health, because it tells you which path is open. If you sit low on the ladder, the fix is not a better pitch. It is a better credential, or a partnership with someone higher up who can speak to the clinical side while you speak to the practical one.
Path three: answer reporter queries that feed health stories
Health writers source experts through query services, where reporters post what they need and experts respond. Platforms like Qwoted and Featured are common, alongside writers posting callouts on LinkedIn and X. Search those platforms for Everyday Health writers and set alerts for your specialty.
A response that gets used has a recognizable shape. It starts with your name, credential, and affiliation on one line. It answers the exact question in two to four sentences, written so the writer can paste it with no edits. It adds one specific detail the writer did not ask for but will want, such as a common mistake patients make or a number from a guideline. It ends with how fast you can do a follow-up call.
Here is what that looks like in practice. Say a writer asks why people wake up at 3 a.m. A usable reply from a sleep physician might read: “Dr. Jane Rivera, board-certified in sleep medicine, Mercy Sleep Center. Waking at 3 a.m. is common because the body moves into lighter sleep stages in the second half of the night, so small triggers like alcohol, a warm room, or stress hormones are more likely to wake you. The fix most people miss is cutting alcohol within three hours of bed. Happy to hop on a call today.” Name and credential, a direct answer, one bonus detail, an offer. The writer can drop it into the draft in under a minute.
Speed wins. Health writers on deadline often take the first three solid responses and stop reading. If you see a query two days late, skip it and wait for the next one, because a late answer can make you look careless.
Once a writer uses you, keep the relationship light. A short thank-you, then nothing until you have something useful for them, such as a new study in your field or a seasonal angle months ahead of time. Writers move between outlets, and a good source relationship follows them, often to sister sites and bigger publications down the line.
The same discipline works for direct pitches. Find writers who cover your specialty by reading bylines on recent Everyday Health articles. Pitch them a specific reader question you can answer, not a request to “be featured.”
Path four and five: pitch data and people, not products
Brands without a clinician on staff have two realistic paths, and neither one is a product pitch.
Path four is data. Everyday Health writers cover new research and surveys. If your company runs a well-designed consumer survey on sleep, stress, or nutrition habits, publishes the methodology, and offers an expert to interpret the results, you have a story. A sample size in the thousands, a clear question, and a finding that surprises are what get coverage. A survey of 200 of your own customers with leading questions is not research, and the reviewer will see that.
The structure of a credible survey is not complicated. Use a third-party panel provider rather than your own email list. Ask neutral questions. Report the sample size, dates, and margin of error. Pair the release with a clinician who can explain what the findings mean for readers, because a number without interpretation rarely becomes a story. Time the release to a health awareness month when writers are already looking for fresh angles, and send it under embargo to two or three writers who cover the topic so they have time to report.
Path five is people. Patient stories run on many health sites, and the editorial policy names patients and patient advocates as voices editors seek out. If your brand works with a patient community, a story about a real person managing a condition, told with consent and without product promotion, can become a feature. The brand may get a mention. The person is the story.
Products do appear in commerce roundups, but those follow the product testing policy, and editors choose what to test. The best a product brand can do is make sure the commerce team knows the product exists, has clean claims, and can ship samples when a relevant test is planned.
What gets you blocked
A few habits end relationships with health desks fast, and they are worth naming.
Overstated claims are the biggest. If your pitch says a supplement “reverses” a condition or a device “cures” pain, the conversation is over. Health editors work under review standards, and an outlandish claim marks you as a source who will create work for the reviewer.
Missing evidence is the second. Every number in your pitch needs a source the writer can check. Link the study, not a blog post about the study. If the evidence is a small trial or an animal study, say so up front. Writers respect a source who flags limits before the reviewer does.
Paid-placement offers are the third. Offering money for an editorial mention to a health site tells the editor you do not understand how they work.
Generic AI-written pitches are a newer problem. Editors now see dozens of pitches a week that share the same phrasing and the same vague claims. If your pitch could have been sent by any company in your category, it reads as noise. Specific names, numbers, and patient details are what make it human.
Mass pitches are the fourth. A writer who covers dermatology does not want your sleep app pitch, and pitching the whole staff at once guarantees nobody replies.
Here is your next step. Figure out which rung of the Credential Ladder you stand on, choose the path that matches, and spend one week setting alerts on query platforms and reading the last 20 bylines in your topic. That week will teach you more about how to get featured on Everyday Health than any media list.