Word Count Benchmarks for Different Content Types

"How many words should it be?" has two kinds of answer. Some platforms set hard limits you can't exceed. Everything else is a judgment call based on what readers need. Here are both, with the caveat that the best length is whatever covers the topic without padding.

Hard limits

• X (Twitter) posts: 280 characters on free accounts.
• Instagram captions: 2,200 characters, but only the first line or two show before "more".
• LinkedIn posts: 3,000 characters, with about the first few lines shown before "see more".
• Google Ads: headlines up to 30 characters, descriptions up to 90.
• YouTube: titles up to 100 characters.
• Etsy: titles up to 140 characters, 13 tags of up to 20 characters each.

Platforms change their limits, so check their help pages for anything critical.

Search results

• Page titles: Google cuts them off by width, roughly 50 to 60 characters.
• Meta descriptions: often shortened around 150 to 160 characters.

Common ranges (soft guidance)

• Blog posts: anything from 600 words for a simple answer to 2,000 or more for an in-depth guide. Match what the searcher needs. See how long a blog post should be.
• Product descriptions: often 100 to 300 words, focused on what buyers ask.
• Marketing emails: short emails with one clear action tend to be easiest to act on.
• Landing pages: short for simple offers, longer for expensive or complex ones. See ideal word count for landing pages, emails and ads.
• Press releases: usually one page, around 400 to 600 words.

Think in reading time

Word counts mean more as reading time. At 200 words a minute, a common average for reading on screen:

• 500 words: about 2.5 minutes.
• 1,000 words: about 5 minutes.
• 2,000 words: about 10 minutes.

See calculating reading time.

When to go longer or shorter

• Longer: step-by-step guides, comparisons, topics with many questions.
• Shorter: definitions, quick answers, news updates, anything read on the move.
• Cut: repeated points, long introductions, filler phrases.

Check your count anywhere

Word Counter counts the words, characters and sentences on any page, or just the text you select, with reading time at a speed you set. Use it in web editors that don't show counts, or to see how long competing pages are.