I don't think so. Some sites that are linking to my domain with me even knowing. I usually would have to use a backlink tool to check on my backlinks.

I don't think word count is a useful metric to use to determine the direction of your blog content. Perhaps you can just try writing with as much factual information that you have and see where you go from there.

Yeah, it really depends. What I usually do is use a semantic writer function alongside writing my content and choose appropriate keywords.