Is word count an SEO ranking factor?

It's true and false. 

If a page has little content then it's not going to be able to rank for much, a more in-depth content page will of course rank for more things so, in turn, can bring in more traffic. 

Having longer content can help give context and meaning to a page so it stands to reason Google will be able to understand what the page is about. 

however, there is not some magic word count number you much reach in order to rank a page higher, every page on your site must be well written and offer something to the users. Just padding a page out to hit some word count number is pointless. 

Personally, I would say grammar and context are more important to a page ranking well than word count.

Is this true? I often see landing pages with barely any words on their page so I'm a little confused.

Most of the times you heard that "content is king" and in reality, it is true also. If you have a website with quality content then you can experience more traffic, but for that best SEO technique require.

So don't get confused with website contents and landing page content. The landing page is the very first door to attract any users and to let them stick with the websites we need good content. The Seo ranking factors not only depends on content even it also depends on keywords, meta title, and descriptions.

Sometimes the landing page does not contain more words but, it has enough focused keywords that help in ranking, and apart from that long count words also help to rank website on SERP's.

It is partially true.

I have been into content writing and SEO for last three years. So far, I have realized that the pages of my website that ranked high on Google were the ones that satisfied the intent of users, irrespective of the word count. 

The first two paragraphs will help you win 90% of the battle as users often access information on their mobile phones. Due to less screen resolution, they continue scrolling down your content or bounce away based on the information that is present on the top. 

In other words, users make your webpage a sensation not the Googlebots. Then why won't bots love your webpage or site.

To conclude, natural occurrence of keywords, on-page factors (like meta title, meta description, alt text etc), and backlinks posted on websites having good domain authority boosts your web page on Google. 

No the number of words doesn't help you to rank on google search page, but you need right quality and quantity product in order to rank in google

"Word count is not a ranking factor."

I mean, this is literally short and to the point and I am not sure how many ways you can look at this and interpret this a different way? It was in response to someone looking for a tool to analyze the word counts of the top Google listings for a specific query.

develop content for each web page on an individual basis and know some pages may only have 300 words while others exceed 1,000 words. Take one page at a time and focus on the quality of content.

Good content will also have users link to your site as well. If a person likes an article, they’re going to keep coming back to your site in the future and possibly linking to other articles as well.

If you’re able to come up with good, interesting topics, or if a page on your site has good information, or if you have a quality product, the word count will take care of itself.

It is true somehow but the quality of content is also important.

I personally read SEO blogs like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, SEO Round Table, and participate in SEO discussion sites like Reddit, and this very forum we're talking on!

No... but it look quality of content 

Not necessarily.

Generally speaking, the higher the word count, the better the opportunity to answer the users search intent and increase in opportunity for backlinks, which both are ranking factors.