How to use the word count checker
- To count a web page, enter the page’s URL in “Check a website” and run the check. You’ll get the total word count and the body word count side by side.
- To count text, switch to “Paste text” and paste or type into the box. Words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and reading time update instantly as you type.
- To count a whole site, enter your email after a website check and we’ll count up to 10 pages, with thin pages flagged.
How many words should a page have for SEO?
Word count isn’t a Google ranking factor on its own. Google ranks the page that best answers the search, and some answers are short. But thin content rarely covers a topic well enough to compete, and pages with real depth tend to rank for more keywords and keep visitors longer.
The most useful benchmark is the competition. Search your keyword, count the words on the pages ranking in the top five with this tool, and compare. If they cover the topic in 1,500 words and your page has 300, you’re probably leaving questions unanswered. As a rough starting point:
- Service and location pages: enough to explain what you do, for whom, where, and why you. Often 600–1,200 body words.
- Blog posts and guides: often 1,000–2,000 words for competitive topics, less for a quick answer.
- Product pages: shorter is fine, as long as the description, specs and FAQs answer what a buyer needs to know.
Don’t pad pages to hit a number. Filler and repeated keywords (keyword stuffing) make a page worse, not better.
How many words should a blog post be?
Long enough to fully answer the question it targets, and no longer. A post answering “what time does the post office close” needs a paragraph. A post comparing three software options needs a few thousand words. Check what’s ranking, then aim to be more useful, not just longer.
Why the body word count matters
Your header, menu and footer appear on every page of your site, so they don’t make any single page more relevant. Counting them inflates thin pages: a page with 150 words of real content and 400 words of navigation looks like 550 words to a basic word counter. The body count shows what each page actually says, which is the part Google uses to judge what the page is about.
How to check word count in Google Docs and Microsoft Word
Google Docs: open the Tools menu and choose Word count, or press Ctrl+Shift+C (Cmd+Shift+C on a Mac). Tick “Display word count while typing” to keep a running count on screen.
Microsoft Word: the word count shows in the status bar at the bottom of the window. Click it, or go to Review › Word Count, for characters, paragraphs and lines.
Or paste the text into the “Paste text” tab at the top of this page for the same counts plus reading time.
Want to know if your pages are enough to rank?
Word count tells you how much a page says, not whether it says the right things. If you want a second opinion, book a free 15-minute call and we’ll compare your pages to the ones outranking you. You can also check your titles with the title tag & meta description checker, run the free SEO & AI audit, or see how our SEO content writing works.
