There is no universal ideal length
“Long-form ranks better” is a correlation that got promoted to a rule. Long articles often rank well because thorough answers tend to be long — not because length itself is a ranking factor. Padding a 700-word answer to 2,000 words makes it worse in every way that matters, including its ranking.
The useful question is not “how long should content be” but “how long is this specific job”. Below are working targets by content type, and the reasoning behind each. You can check any draft against them with the free word counter, which also reports characters, sentences, reading time and keyword density.
Targets by content type
| Content type | Working target | Why |
|---|---|---|
| News or update post | 300–600 words | Readers want the fact, not the context |
| Answer to one specific question | 600–900 | Complete beats comprehensive |
| Standard blog post | 1,000–1,500 | Room for structure, examples and a CTA |
| Commercial or comparison page | 1,200–1,800 | Competing against pages that answer objections |
| Pillar or ultimate guide | 2,500–4,000 | Covers a whole topic cluster, earns links |
| Product description | 300–800 | Enough for search and for doubt, not more |
| Email newsletter | 200–500 | Read on a phone, between other things |
| Landing page | 500–1,200 | Length scales with price and risk |
Two adjustments matter more than the numbers. First, match the intent: if the query has a one-sentence answer, lead with the sentence and let the rest be optional. Second, look at what already ranks — if the top five results are all 2,000 words of genuine depth, a 600-word post will not displace them.
Reading time, speaking time and why they differ
Silent reading runs at roughly 200–250 words per minute; reading aloud at 130–150. That is why a script that looks short takes twice as long as expected on camera.
- A 1,000-word article reads in about 4–5 minutes
- The same 1,000 words spoken take 7–8 minutes
- A 60-second video needs about 140–150 words of script
- A 10-minute podcast segment needs roughly 1,400 words
The word counter shows reading and speaking time side by side, which is the fastest way to trim a script to a slot instead of discovering the overrun during recording.
Platform limits worth memorising
Character limits are hard constraints, and most of them truncate silently rather than warning you:
- Meta description: ~155 characters before Google cuts it
- Title tag: ~60 characters, but pixels matter more than characters — check it in the title and meta preview tool
- X post: 280 characters
- LinkedIn post: truncated at about 210 characters with “see more”
- Instagram caption: 2,200 maximum, truncated at 125
- Email subject line: 60 characters, and about 35 on mobile
- YouTube title: 100 maximum, truncated around 60 in most feeds
The pattern is consistent: the first 30–40 words carry the click on every platform. Write them last, when you know what the piece actually says.
Keyword density is a diagnostic, not a target
Aim for nothing. Write naturally, then check: if your main term appears at 4% or more, you are repeating yourself and it reads badly to humans as well as to search engines. Somewhere around 0.5–1.5% is what natural writing produces on its own. Use the counter’s density panel to catch the accidental repetition, not to hit a quota.
More usefully, the density list tells you what your article is actually about. If you wrote a post about pricing and the top term is “client”, the article may have drifted.
Cutting is faster than writing
The reliable way to hit a target length is to overwrite by 20% and then delete. Three passes:
- Delete the warm-up. The first paragraph of most drafts explains that the topic is important. The reader already knows; that is why they clicked.
- Delete the hedges. “Basically”, “in order to”, “it is worth noting that”, “very”. Each one costs words and credibility.
- Delete the repeated point. Every draft makes one argument twice in different words. Keep the better version.
This typically removes 15–25% with no loss of substance, which is exactly the padding that made the piece feel long.
Doing this at volume
If you produce content weekly, the bottleneck moves from length to consistency — same structure, same voice, same standard, every time:
- AI Content Creator Bundle — 367+ Prompts — $39, one library for blog, email, social and ads
- Blog SEO Toolkit — 340 ChatGPT Prompts — $34, planning through on-page optimisation
- Email Newsletter Template Pack — subject lines and layouts built around the limits above
- Social Media Content Calendar & Strategy Kit — $9, for scheduling what you publish
Frequently asked questions
Does Google prefer longer articles?
No. It prefers the page that answers the query best. Length is a by-product of doing that well for complex queries.
Do headings and lists count towards word count?
In the counter, yes — all visible text is counted. For editorial targets, judge by body prose; a post padded with subheadings is still thin.
Is the word counter private?
Yes. Everything runs in your browser; no text is uploaded or stored.
What about AI-generated content and length?
The same rules apply, with one addition: generated drafts tend to run long and repeat themselves. Run them through the density panel and cut hard.
Choose the target from the job, overwrite by a fifth, then cut. The right length is the shortest version that leaves nothing important out.
