Google's John Mueller said on Twitter this morning that word count is not a sign or factor for what Google considers to be thin content or unhelpful content.
John wrote, "Word count is not a sign that a page is thin content." John said simply "don't use word count" to define if your content is thin or helpful. "You can make a qualified call on what's helpful for users, and what's fluff," John added.
Here is the tweet where he responded to a statement by an SEO saying otherwise:
Word count is not a sign that a page is thin content. You're the expert on your site's topic (or you should be), you can make a qualified call on what's helpful for users, and what's fluff. Don't use word count. https://t.co/lnuYObPiY6
— 🌽〈link href=//johnmu.com rel=canonical 〉🌽 (@JohnMu) September 15, 2022
In 2019, John said word count is not a ranking factor and in 2018 John said word count is not indicative of quality. Google won't penalize you for short articles and Google said short articles can rank well and then again in 2014 said short articles are not low quality. Google has been recently saying to avoid fluff leading some to believe Google may not rank fluff well in the future.
In fact, Google even removed the referece to word count in the Search Console document recently.
So don't worry about word count, and do not add fluff for the purpose of increasing word count. Say what you need to say, respect your reader's time and get out.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
