On 8 September 2026 we pulled the Google US top ten for twelve patient-facing commercial GLP-1 and weight-loss queries. Clinics and telehealth brands held 48 of the 120 positions, community sites 17, media 8; pharmacies and national platforms recur across queries. The median page-one domain authority was 408 on a 1,000-point scale, only 8 positions were held by domains under 150, and an AI Overview appeared on 8 of the 12 queries.
Why we ran it
Operators ask whether a telehealth brand can rank against pharmacies and national platforms, and where. Tool volumes tell you the size of the demand, not who holds it. We measured the SERPs directly.
Method
Twelve queries chosen to represent how patients search commercially for GLP-1 care (category, product online, compounded product, comparison, cost, programme, local, telehealth weight loss). Google organic results, United States, desktop, pulled live through the DataForSEO SERP API on 8 September 2026, top ten organic positions per query (120 rows, 63 unique domains). Domain authority from DataForSEO's backlinks rank (0 to 1,000). Domain type classified by a heuristic on domain name and result title and reviewed by hand; national pharmacies and some platforms fall under "other". Queries: glp-1 telehealth; online semaglutide prescription; compounded semaglutide online; tirzepatide online; best glp-1 telehealth; medical weight loss online; glp-1 clinic near me; semaglutide cost; wegovy vs compounded semaglutide; glp-1 weight loss program; online weight loss clinic; telehealth weight loss.
Findings
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Positions held by clinics and telehealth brands | 48 of 120 |
| Held by community and social (Reddit, GoodRx community pages) | 17 of 120 |
| Held by editorial and media | 8 of 120 |
| Held by pharmacies, platforms and other | 38 of 120 |
| Median domain authority (0 to 1,000) | 408 (quartiles 286 and 492) |
| Positions held by domains under 150 authority | 8 of 120 |
| Queries with an AI Overview | 8 of 12 |
| Queries with a local pack | 1 of 12 |
Who appears most
| Domain | Page-one appearances (of 12) | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| goodrx.com | 9 | 455 |
| walgreens.com | 8 | 501 |
| weightwatchers.com | 7 | 469 |
| forbes.com | 5 | 643 |
| reddit.com | 5 | 813 |
| forhers.com | 5 | 347 |
| teladochealth.com | 4 | 408 |
| policylab.us | 4 | 286 |
| myalloy.com | 3 | 252 |
| ro.co | 3 | 407 |
What it means for a GLP-1 operator
- Head terms are a wall. A pharmacy chain, a coupon aggregator and a weight-management brand appear on most queries, at authority most operators will not reach this year. Paid is most expensive on exactly these terms.
- The open field is specific. Comparison, cost, eligibility, state and local queries, and the operator's own brand SERP, are where positions are held by lower-authority sites and where an honest, well-built page can win in months.
- AI Overviews are already answering the commercial questions. On 8 of 12 queries Google's own answer sits above the results, citing pharmacies, media and platforms. Being cited there is a content-and-authority job, not a trick.
- Compare this with the peptide market. Our sister analysis on PeptidesSEO found vendor sites holding nearly half of page one at a median authority of 257. Same engine, very different category.
Limitations
One day, one location, desktop only, twelve queries. Type classification is heuristic. Authority is a third-party estimate. We will re-run the sample quarterly and publish the deltas.
Sources
- DataForSEO Google organic SERP API, US desktop, live (2026-09-08) — https://dataforseo.com/
- DataForSEO backlinks bulk_ranks (domain authority, 0 to 1,000) (2026-09-08) — https://dataforseo.com/
GLP-1SEO provides search-marketing services and publishes search-marketing analysis. We are not physicians, pharmacists, lawyers or regulatory consultants, and nothing on this site is medical, legal or regulatory advice, or advice to patients. Clients remain responsible for obtaining qualified advice about their products, claims, jurisdictions and operations.