In practice: How many words does a good website text contain?

Writing targeted website text is only possible if you have all the conditions clearly laid out beforehand. One of those questions is an obvious one: how many words does a good website text contain? Here is a concrete guideline based on two factors: How long does the average person maintain attention and what influence does the number of words have on SEO/findability?

The two main goals of website text were extensively discussed in an earlier article. You write website text both for ‘stopping power’ and to convince your visitor, while keeping Search Engine Optimization – optimizing for search engines – in mind. Or, to put it more simply; quality and SEO. We look at what this means for the ideal number of words in a website text per topic.

Quality – First and foremost, you want a text to grab the visitor’s attention and then hold it so you can convince them. Especially the latter influences the number of words, because our fleeting attention lasts a maximum of 7 minutes on one piece. And the reader only grants you those 7 minutes if the structure and content are 100% right! In those 7 minutes, the reader also looks at images, so you should be happy if you manage to hold the reader’s attention for 3 to 4 minutes. How many words does one read on average in 3 to 4 minutes? No more than 400 to a maximum of 500 words. A good website text therefore never consists of more than 500 words! And actually, the fewer words, the better.

SEO – The best content in the world doesn’t help if it’s not found. The vast majority of traffic nowadays comes through search engines, and in the Netherlands that means Google. And what SEO experts say about the number of words is simple: long pieces of text make little sense, but don’t make them too short either. Less than 200 words is considered too short by Google and is viewed more critically, so less findable. Experts draw the line at 600 words, because a longer piece can be better divided into 2 separate topics on which your site can be found separately. All in all, most focus on a number between 400 and 600 words.

Writing website text: the ideal number of words

And so we have relatively easily arrived at the ideal length of a website text: around 500 words. Just don’t focus blindly on the number of words; it’s important that you tell your story concretely and clearly and hold your reader’s attention. Finished at 400? Done! At 800 words and not finished yet? Consider whether you can split the topic and make it easier for the reader that way. In any case, you now know what to keep in mind when you sit down to write website text.

In our In Practice: Writing Website Texts we cover everything involved. Next week we will discuss the structure and layout of good website text. To reread earlier articles, check the main article.