How many words is too many?

The answer to this lies in your content goals. From a readability perspective, regardless of whether the company is B2B or B2C, 500-700 word articles are easier to digest.

Anything over 2000 words would fare better in eBook or whitepaper format. The most important aspect for readability and building a long-term audience is whether or not your content is enjoyable. The best advice I can give on word count is use as many words as you need to say what you would like to say without rambling.

Be concise, create a structure before you start, and try to cut out anything unnecessary when you edit.

On the other hand, when looking at wordcount from an SEO perspective, every marketer and agency will have a different answer. From my personal experiments and experience, 2000 word articles still have huge ranking potential, although I know many disagree with me. If you’re using content for SEO, I’ve personally found a strategy that mixes up long form and short form content is best. Pick the 5 hardest keywords you’d like to rank for, and write 2000 words on them. Write anything between 700 and 1500 for the rest.

The purpose of search engines is and has always been to bring answers to the public. Their algorithms change in line with this goal. As SEO evolves (especially now AI is in the picture) it will continue to focus on ranking content that genuinely helps people in a way they can easily digest higher than anything else. While 2000 word articles may rank well today, I personally feel this is because Google sees that you’ve put more effort into these than others.

This may change in the future. The best thing you can do for your SEO is the same as the best thing you can do for your readability and brand awareness, focus on driving valuable, easy-to-read, enjoyable content and the rest will follow.

As you look at your marketing funnel, consider that each moment you take from your buyer persona by talking about yourself is like a loan. You are borrowing goodwill from them. At the same time, every moment you give them of enjoyable content is adding more goodwill into your goodwill bucket. Don’t waste too much goodwill by writing 5000 word manifestos.

Finally, a word of caution. It is often easier to say more than it is to say less. If you find you are always producing 3000 word articles, it’s possible you may need to simplify your marketing.