Waterfront Media Inc., the publisher of EverydayHealth, has acquired search marketing company Netramind to help it overtake rival WebMD as the nation’s leading health information site.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Netramind specializes in online marketing, helping Web publishers increase traffic to their sites by optimizing the use of search engines like Google and Yahoo.

"Netramind is a great addition," said Ben Wolin, Waterfront Media’s co-founder and chief executive. "We bought the company for its people and technology."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Brooklyn-based Waterfront Media will use Netramind’s technology to boost its results when consumers use the Internet for health information searches. It has an ambitious goal—to make EverydayHealth the No. 1 online health destination in the United States. With 14 million monthly unique visitors, it currently trails WebMD by about 5 million a month.

The site is in already in growth mode, and Mr. Wolin hopes the Netramind acquisition will continue that trend. Traffic to EverydayHealth quadrupled in 2007, compared with 2006, according to comScore Media Metrics.

Waterfront Media will also use Netramind’s technology to increase traffic to its network of 20 health-related Web properties which include SouthBeachDiet and WhattoExpect, a pregnancy and parenting site based on the bestselling book.

Waterfront Media needs to keep pushing for growth. The market for health Web sites has become crowded with several new entrants such as Time Inc.’s Health.com and AOL co-founder Steve Case’s Revolution Health. Hundreds of other sites are vying for eyeballs and advertising dollars.

Netramind, a 25-man shop that was founded in 2003, has an office in Mumbai, India. The company will be integrated into Waterfront Media, which will gain its first physical presence outside of New York City via the deal.

Last month, Waterfront Media snagged a high-profile About.com executive, Marjorie Martin, to lead EverydayHealth and its other health sites. It also named Doug McCormick, former iVillage chief executive and partner of one of its venture investors, Rho Capital Partners, as chairman of the board. Waterfront Media has raised $37 million in venture funding since it was founded in 2002.

Netramind is Waterfront Media’s second acquisition. Last year, the company bought My-Calorie-Count.com, an interactive tool that helps users track their calorie intake, to further enhance its offerings.