Online word counter for any live public page

The text of the page, separated from the template on every other one

Page address

The count covers the served HTML, what a crawler reads first. A page whose text arrives via JavaScript returns a very low figure here.

Everything is computed in your browser. Nothing is stored.

Run the same address through four counters and you will get four answers. None of them is broken: they are counting different things, and almost none of them says which. The figure worth having is the body copy alone, because a 400-word footer adds 400 words to every page on the site while saying nothing about any of them.

How to use it

How it works

Paste an address

The tool reads the served HTML, the version a crawler sees first, rather than the browser render.

Read the two figures

The body copy, the whole page, and the share of template sitting between them.

Look at the distribution

Paragraph count, longest paragraph and the heading outline say more than the total does.

Worth knowing

Four things to keep in mind

There is no correct length

Google has said it repeatedly: word count is not a ranking factor. What exists is how many words the subject needs, and that cannot be decided in advance.

A near-zero count is a finding

A page whose text arrives via JavaScript returns almost nothing here. That is exactly what a crawler reads on its first pass, and it is information rather than a fault.

The only benchmark worth having

Count the pages already ranking for the query and take the range rather than the average: one 6,000-word piece drags an average somewhere no page needs to go.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Because they count different things: some the whole page, some a content wrapper, some the render after JavaScript, some the source before it. None is wrong, but a number without its method cannot be checked, which is why the method is shown here.

A product or category page works at 200 to 500 words, a news item at 300 to 800, and a page trying to be the definitive answer often needs more than 1,200. Length is the consequence of covering the subject, never the goal.

There is no official threshold, but pages under 300 words of real body copy are the ones that most often come back as "crawled, currently not indexed". A 200-word page that fully answers a specific question is perfectly fine.

In this order: a main element, an element marked role=main, the longest article, and failing those the body stripped of its navigation, header, footer and forms. The rule that was used is printed with the result.

View all questions

Also