The myth of "longer is always better"
For years, the SEO advice was simple: write longer content. 2,000 words beats 500 words. 5,000 words beats 2,000 words. Studies kept showing a correlation between content length and Google rankings — so the industry concluded that length caused rankings.
It doesn't. Length correlates with rankings because comprehensive content tends to be long. But a 5,000-word post that repeats itself and buries the key information doesn't rank better than a tight 1,200-word post that directly answers the query. In 2026, Google's algorithms are sophisticated enough to measure content quality, not just quantity.
Blog posts and articles
Informational queries (how-to, what is, why)
Target: 1,200–2,500 words. These queries need enough depth to fully answer the question and cover related sub-topics. Too short and you miss important angles; too long and you're padding.
Competitive commercial queries (best X, top Y, X vs Z)
Target: 2,000–4,000 words. These need thorough comparison, evidence, and multiple perspectives to compete. Check what's already ranking — match the depth of the current top results, then add more value.
News and updates
Target: 300–600 words. Freshness matters more than depth for news. Get to the point fast. Google wants the facts, not your padding.
Product and landing pages
Target: 300–1,000 words. Product pages should be as long as they need to be to answer every buying question — no more. Include: what the product is, who it's for, key features, social proof, and a clear CTA. Don't add filler content trying to hit a word count.
Social media
LinkedIn posts
Target: 150–300 words for engagement peaks. The "see more" button cuts off after roughly 210 characters. Write a compelling first line that makes people click it. Posts of 1,300–2,000 words can also perform well for thought leadership — but shorter posts get more comments.
Twitter/X
Hard limit: 280 characters. But shorter tweets (under 100 characters) often get higher engagement. Threads can extend content — but each tweet should stand alone.
Instagram captions
Target: 125–150 characters before the "more" cutoff. Make those first characters count. Captions up to 2,200 characters are allowed and can help with discoverability through keywords.
Email subject lines
Target: 40–60 characters. Most email clients cut off subject lines at 60 characters on desktop and around 30 characters on mobile. Frontload the most important words. Open rates drop significantly beyond 70 characters.
Meta descriptions
Target: 120–158 characters. Google truncates meta descriptions around 155–160 characters in search results. Shorter is fine — empty space isn't penalised. But you're wasting valuable search result real estate if you write fewer than 100 characters.
How to track your counts in real time
My word counter shows words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, reading time, and speaking time — all updating live as you type. It's the fastest way to check whether your content is hitting the right targets for each format.