The answer you’ll find most often if you Google this question is “1,500 to 2,500 words.” Sometimes it’s “at least 2,000 words.” Occasionally someone very confident will tell you the magic number is 1,890 words, which is suspiciously precise for something that is not actually a thing.
Here is the real answer: long enough to fully answer the question, and not a word longer.
That’s not a cop-out. It’s the most useful framework for deciding word count, because the right length for any individual post depends entirely on what that post is trying to do — not on a number that sounds authoritative in a blogging guide.
Why the 2,000-word myth won’t die
The “longer is better” idea has been circulating in blogging advice for over a decade, and it’s not entirely wrong — it’s just missing context.
Posts between 1,500 and 2,500 words typically perform best for competitive keywords, and longer content does tend to earn more backlinks. But that’s correlation, not causation. Longer posts rank better on average because they tend to cover topics more thoroughly, include more internal links, and address more of the questions a reader might have. It’s those qualities — not the word count — that Google rewards.
The reason longer articles often appear to rank better is because they include more depth, clearer answers and stronger internal linking. It’s those qualities, not the number of words, that influence visibility.
A 2,500-word post that repeats itself, meanders off-topic, and pads every section to hit a target is not better than an 800-word post that answers the question directly and completely. In fact it’s worse — for readers who came for a clear answer, and increasingly for Google too.
What Google is actually looking for
Google’s job is to match the searcher to the content that best answers their query. Word count is not a ranking factor. Topical completeness is.
A post that fully covers a topic — answers the main question, addresses the follow-up questions a reader is likely to have, uses the natural vocabulary of the subject — will outperform a post that hits 2,000 words by summarising the same point four different ways.
Longer content over 10,000 words can actually hurt rankings, especially when content is not on point and fails to nail search intent. This is the other end of the myth — the mega-post that covers everything about a topic in one place. Those made sense when “thin content” was the main problem Google was trying to solve. Now that AI can generate 10,000 words about anything in seconds, depth and specificity matter far more than bulk. (source).
Your reader’s time matters too. Someone who Googled “how often should I water my pothos” and lands on a 4,000-word essay about the complete history of pothos care is going to leave. Google notices that. It counts against you.
A better approach: lots of specific articles, well connected
A useful reframer for thinking about word count is to stop thinking about individual posts in isolation and think about clusters instead.
A 3,000-word post trying to cover everything about pothos watering is harder to rank for and less useful to a reader than five connected posts — each one answering a specific question thoroughly, all linking to each other. “How often should I water my pothos.” “Signs of an underwatered pothos.” “Signs of an overwatered pothos.” “How to water pothos in winter.” “Should I use tap or filtered water for pothos.”
Each of those is 800 to 1,200 words. Each one answers a specific search. Together, they signal to Google that your site has real depth on the topic — which is what drives rankings for the pillar post that connects them all.
Five smaller, specific, internally linked posts will outperform one sprawling mega-post almost every time. The exception is cornerstone or pillar content, which earns its length because it genuinely needs to cover a lot of ground and everything else links back to it.
How to decide the right length for your specific post
Rather than starting with a word count target, start with these three questions:
What is the search intent? A simple factual question (“what temperature do pothos need?”) needs a direct answer, not an essay. A complex how-to (“how to propagate pothos in water”) needs enough steps and detail that someone could actually follow along. Match the length to the task.
What are the top three ranking posts doing? Search your keyword and look at the length of the posts currently on page one. Not to copy them exactly — but as a rough signal of what Google has decided satisfies this search. If the top results are all under 1,000 words, a 2,500-word post isn’t better, it’s mismatched.
Have you actually answered the question? Read your draft back. Is there anything a reader would finish your post still wondering about? If yes, add it. Is there anything that doesn’t directly relate to the search query? If yes, cut it — or save it for a separate article.
That third question is the most important one. Writing for Planet Houseplant, I never set a word count target. I wrote until the topic felt covered, then stopped. Some posts were 600 words. Some were 2,500. The site ranked regardless, because the length followed the content rather than the content being stretched to fill the length.
A quick guide by post type
For a more detailed breakdown of which post types tend toward which lengths, Article 24: What Types of Blog Posts Get the Most Traffic? covers this in full. The short version:
Specific long-tail question posts tend to be shorter — 800 to 1,200 words is often plenty. How-to guides and explainers sit in the 1,500 to 2,000 word range. Comparison and review posts land around 1,500 to 2,000 words. Pillar content earns its length — 2,500 to 3,500 words for a genuinely comprehensive guide — but only because it’s covering a lot of ground that other articles link back to.
None of these are rules. They’re starting points for thinking about what a post needs.
The padding problem
Padding is the enemy of good blog posts and it’s surprisingly easy to do without noticing. It shows up as:
- Restating the same point in different words across multiple paragraphs
- Long introductions that delay getting to the actual answer
- Transition summaries (“so, as we’ve seen above…”)
- Bullet points that could each be cut to one line but have been expanded to three
- Conclusions that recap everything the post just covered
Google’s algorithms are trained on enormous amounts of text and are increasingly good at identifying content that looks long but doesn’t add value. Prioritise quality and clarity over simply hitting a word count — irrelevant filler can damage user experience.(source)
The test: if you removed a paragraph, would the post be worse? If not, cut it.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a blog post be for SEO?
Long enough to fully answer the search query — no longer. For most informational posts that’s somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 words. For specific long-tail questions, 800 words can be plenty. For pillar content, 2,500 to 3,500 words is reasonable. Check what’s ranking for your specific keyword and use that as your guide.
Is a 500-word blog post too short?
It depends on the question being answered. A very specific, factual query can be fully addressed in 500 words. Most informational blog posts need more depth than that to rank well — not because of word count, but because 500 words rarely leaves room to cover the follow-up questions a reader is likely to have.
Does Google prefer longer blog posts?
Not inherently. Google prefers posts that thoroughly answer the search query. Longer posts tend to rank better on average because they tend to be more thorough — but padding a post with filler content to hit a word count will not help rankings and may hurt them.
What happens if my blog post is too long?
Readers leave. Google notices that readers leave. High bounce rates and low time-on-page are signals that your content didn’t match what the searcher was looking for — either in topic or in format. If your posts are consistently too long, break them into smaller, linked articles rather than cutting content arbitrarily.
Should I aim for a specific word count on every post?
No. Set a rough target based on post type and what’s ranking for your keyword, then write until the topic is covered. If you hit your target and the post feels complete, stop. If you hit your target and there are still unanswered questions, keep going. The target is a starting point, not a rule.
What to read next
Once you know how long your post should be, the next question is how to structure it — Article 27: How to Write a Blog Post That Ranks on Google covers the full writing and optimisation process.
And if you’re still working out what to write about in the first place, Article 29: How to Write a Good Blog Post Title comes next in the sequence.