A long-form article should be as long as the subject needs and no longer.
There is no universal SEO rule requiring an article to contain 1,500, 2,000 or 3,000 words.
Some subjects can be explained thoroughly in 1,200 words. Others may genuinely require several thousand.
The better questions are:
- What does the reader need to understand?
- What questions need answering?
- What evidence or examples are useful?
- Is every section contributing something?
- Would removing 500 words make the article better?
Search research can help identify the depth readers expect, but competitor word counts should not become a writing target.
Length is useful when it gives a writer room to explain something properly.
It becomes a problem when the reader has to work through unnecessary words to find the answer.