Counting words the way editors do
A word is any run of letters or digits, with apostrophes inside it (don't counts as one word). Hyphenated words count as two, as most word processors do. Characters are counted with and without spaces, because limits use both.
Questions
How long is a 1,000 word article to read?
About 4 minutes at an average reading speed of 238 words a minute.
Does it count words in other languages?
Yes, for languages that separate words with spaces.
Is my text stored?
No. Counting happens in your browser.
How many words is a good blog post?
As many as the topic needs. Posts that rank are often 1,000 to 2,000 words because they cover the question fully.