Blog Post Word Counter with Reading Time and Keyword Density

Paste a draft to see its word count, reading time and which terms you have leaned on hardest. Useful when you are writing to a target length or checking that a keyword has not crept in twelve times without you noticing.

How long should a blog post be?

There is no length that ranks by itself, and the widely repeated figures are correlation rather than instruction. Longer posts tend to rank better because thorough answers tend to be longer, not because a word count is a ranking factor. Padding a 700-word answer to 2,000 makes it worse, and readers leaving early is a signal that does count.

The useful question is not how long a post should be but how long the posts currently ranking for your query are. If the top results answer in 800 words, a 2,500-word version is not more thorough, it is harder to read.

As a starting point rather than a rule: a news or opinion post works at 600 to 1,000 words, a how-to guide at 1,200 to 2,000, and a genuinely comprehensive reference piece at 2,000 to 3,000.

Reading time, and why it appears on posts

Reading time is calculated at around 200 to 250 words a minute for an adult reading on screen, which is slower than reading print. A 1,500-word post is therefore a six- to seven-minute read.

Publishers show it because it sets expectations before someone commits, and a reader who knows a piece is nine minutes long is less likely to abandon it at minute three. This counter reports it alongside the word count.

What keyword density is actually good for

Not for hitting a target. There is no percentage that search engines reward, and writing toward one produces the stilted repetition that gives the technique away.

It is useful in the opposite direction: as a check for accidental over-use. If your main term appears forty times in 1,200 words you have almost certainly written some awkward sentences, and the density figure is how you notice. Below roughly two per cent is a reasonable comfort zone, but read the sentences rather than the number.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a word count that ranks best?

No. Longer posts correlate with better rankings because thorough answers tend to be longer, but length is not itself a ranking factor. Match the depth of what already ranks for your query rather than a number.

How long is a 1,000-word post to read?

Four to five minutes at typical on-screen reading speeds of 200 to 250 words a minute. Screen reading is slower than print, which is why the lower figure is the safer estimate.

What keyword density should I aim for?

None in particular. Use the figure to catch accidental repetition rather than to hit a target — if a term is at four or five per cent you have probably written sentences that read badly, and that is the real problem.

Does this count words in HTML?

It counts whatever you paste. If you paste raw HTML the tags will be counted as text, so paste the rendered draft rather than the markup for an accurate figure.

Is my draft stored anywhere?

No. Everything is counted in the browser and nothing is transmitted or saved, so an unpublished draft stays unpublished.

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