Word Counter
Count words, characters, sentences, and paragraphs as you type, with reading time, speaking time, and a page estimate. Enter a URL instead and the counter measures the readable text of any published page, which is the number to compare against when you are sizing up a competitor.
Length as a symptom, not a target
Word count is worth measuring, but not worth targeting. A page ranks because it answers the query completely, and length is usually a side effect of doing that. When a page is thin, the useful question is not "how do I add 500 words" but "which part of the question have I left unanswered".
The place the number does earn its keep is comparison. If the pages ranking for your target query average 1,800 words and yours is 400, that gap is telling you they cover subtopics you skipped. Enter their URLs above to get the real figure rather than an impression, then use the heading analyzer to see which sections they have that you do not.
The reverse case is just as common. A 3,000-word page that could have answered the question in 800 is padded, and padding shows up as a high bounce rate long before it shows up in rankings. Reading time is the honest check here: if your answer takes eleven minutes to reach, most readers will not reach it.
Every number here answers a different question
The word count sizes the page. Everything beside it describes how the page reads, and each figure points at a different edit.
- Average words per sentence above roughly 20 means the page is asking a lot of a skimming reader. The fix is to split the longest sentences, and the longest sentence figure tells you where the ceiling is.
- Paragraphs divided into the word count gives the size of a block. Blocks over 80 words are a wall on a phone screen, which is where most of your readers are.
- Reading ease is the Flesch score, from 0 to 100, and higher is plainer. Most web writing sits between 60 and 70. A score under 50 is the sign of long sentences, long words, or both.
- Most used words shows what the page keeps repeating. A term at the top that has nothing to do with the subject is filler, and the keyword density checker puts a percentage on it.
None of these are scores to maximize. They are symptoms, and the page they describe is the thing to change. Run the finished draft through the readability analyzer when you want the sentences that are dragging the number down named one by one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Long enough to answer the query fully and no longer. In practice, the pages that rank for a competitive informational query usually run 1,200 to 2,000 words, because that is what it takes to cover the subtopics searchers expect. A comparison or definition query is often satisfied in 600. The reliable method is to read the pages currently ranking and cover what they cover, rather than to write to a number.
No. Google has said repeatedly that word count is not a ranking signal, and pages of 400 words routinely outrank pages of 4,000. What correlates with ranking is coverage: a longer page often ranks because it answers more of the question, not because it is longer. Padding a thin page to hit a target makes it worse, not better.
This tool divides the word count by 238 words per minute, the median silent reading speed for adults reading non-fiction. Speaking time uses 140 words per minute, which is the pace of an unhurried presentation. Both are estimates; a page dense with code or numbers reads more slowly than prose of the same length.
The page figure divides the word count by 500, which is roughly what fits on a single-spaced page of 12pt text with normal margins. Double spacing halves it, so 1,000 words is two single-spaced pages or four double-spaced ones. Treat the number as an order of magnitude rather than as a page count you could hand to a printer, because headings, images, and lists all change what a page holds.
Yes. Enter any URL and the tool fetches the page and extracts its readable text, leaving out the navigation, scripts, and styles that would otherwise inflate the count. That is the number worth comparing against, and it is how you check the real length of a competitor's page rather than guessing from how long it looks.
Any run of letters or numbers, including hyphenated words and contractions, so "state-of-the-art" counts as one word and "don't" counts as one. Standalone punctuation and symbols are not counted. This matches how word processors count and how a reader would count aloud.
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