-
short answer no, word count and exact match phrasing don’t work the way your agency is treating them anymore
longer answer …they’re using proxies from an older SEO playbook
word count was never a ranking factor. it was a correlation thing …longer content sometimes ranked because it covered topics better. but padding content just to hit length usually hurts UX and can dilute relevance. what matters now is coverage and intent match, not how many words you used to get there
same with exact match keywords. google hasn’t needed exact phrasing for years. it understands variants, context, and intent pretty well. forcing something like “dentist near me open now” into body copy is unnecessary and often counterproductive. that kind of phrasing belongs in structured elements (titles, FAQs, maybe a heading), not awkward sentences
what you’re noticing with competitors is important …tighter pages that satisfy intent faster often win, especially for local/service queries
if your agency is still optimizing to word count targets and keyword density, they’re likely optimizing for a checklist, not for how search actually works today
and increasingly, visibility isn’t just about rankings. a lot of queries (especially local and informational) are getting answered directly in SERPs or AI summaries, so stuffing more content on the page doesn’t necessarily translate to more traffic
you’re not missing anything …your instinct is right.
