Lesson 13
How Long Should a Page Be? (The Honest Answer)
What you’ll learn
By the end of this lesson, you’ll understand:
Why there’s no “ideal” page length
How to decide when a page is long enough
What actually matters more than word count
Why word count is a poor metric
You’ll often hear advice like:
- “Pages must be 1,000 words”
- “Longer content ranks better”
In reality, search engines don’t rank pages by length.
They rank pages based on:
- Relevance
- Clarity
- Usefulness
- How well the page satisfies search intent
Word count is an outcome, not a goal.
How long a page needs to be
A page should be long enough to answer the question it’s addressing — and no longer.
Some topics need:
- A few short sections
Others need:
- Multiple explanations
- Examples
- Context
Both can perform well if the page is focused and complete.
How to tell if a page is “complete”
A helpful way to evaluate a page is to ask:
- Does it answer the main question clearly?
- Does it cover obvious follow-up questions?
- Would a reasonable visitor need to search again?
If the answer to the last question is “no”, the page is likely long enough.
What to avoid
Avoid:
- Padding content to hit a word target
- Repeating the same idea in multiple ways
- Adding sections that don’t support the main topic
Extra content that doesn’t add value often reduces clarity rather than improving SEO.
A healthier mindset
Think of page length as:
The natural result of explaining something properly.
If you focus on explaining the topic well, length takes care of itself.