How many words should a page have?
There is no target. Word count is not a ranking factor, and chasing one reliably makes pages worse.
As many as the subject needs and no more. Word count is not a ranking factor. The correlation between long pages and good rankings exists because thorough answers tend to be longer, not because length causes ranking — and padding a short answer to hit a number makes it a worse answer.
Where the myth comes from
Studies repeatedly find that top-ranking pages average 1,500 to 2,000 words, and the conclusion drawn is that you should write 2,000 words. That reverses cause and effect.
Pages that fully answer a complex question tend to be long. Length is a symptom of thoroughness, not a cause of ranking. Writing 2,000 words about something that takes 300 to explain produces a padded page that ranks worse than the honest short one, because it buries the answer.
Let the question set the length
| Question type | Natural length | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A factual lookup | 100–300 words | "What is the maximum length of a meta description?" |
| A procedure | 300–800 words | "How do I add a canonical tag?" |
| A concept needing context | 800–1,500 words | "What is a content security policy?" |
| A comprehensive reference | 2,000+ words | "Complete guide to security headers" |
| A product page | 150–600 words | Enough to answer the buying questions. |
The real question: is it complete?
Better than counting words: read the page as someone who arrived with the question and ask whether they leave satisfied. Specifically:
- Is the direct answer present, and near the top?
- Are the obvious follow-up questions answered?
- Are claims specific enough to act on — numbers, names, versions?
- Could someone do the thing after reading, or do they need another source?
- Is there anything here purely to increase length?
What thin content actually is
Thin content is not short content. It is content with no substance, whatever its length. A 200-word page that answers a question completely is not thin. A 2,000-word page of restated generalities is, and gets treated as such.
Signals of genuine thinness: no information not available in the first search result, no specifics, heavy repetition of the target phrase, and no reason for the page to exist other than to occupy a keyword.
A practical approach
- Write the complete answer without thinking about length.
- Cut everything that does not add information — introductions restating the title, filler transitions, throat-clearing.
- Check the obvious follow-up questions are covered; add them if not.
- If the result covers several distinct questions, consider splitting it into separate pages.
- Do not count the words.
What our audit reports about this
Every item below is measured directly, not inferred. Run it against your own site and the result names the exact rule or header responsible.
- Word count and text-to-markup ratio, reported as observations rather than scored against a target.
- Whether the content correlates with what the title and description promise.
- Repetition and filler patterns associated with padded writing.
- Heading structure and whether the page covers one topic or several.
For agents and scripts, the same measurement is at
/api/v1/content?url=yoursite.com —
see the API documentation.
Related questions
Is there a minimum word count for ranking?
No. Google has stated repeatedly that word count is not a ranking factor. Short pages rank well constantly when they answer the question.
Should I expand my short pages?
Only if they are incomplete. Expanding a complete answer with padding makes it worse. If a short page is not ranking, the reason is usually competition or authority, not length.
What about product pages with little text?
They are fine. A product page needs enough to answer buying questions — specifications, dimensions, materials, delivery. Adding paragraphs of prose about the history of the category helps nobody.
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