Keyword Density Checker

See exactly which words and phrases dominate your page — and whether you have overdone it.

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Interactive keyword density checkerRuns in your browser, nothing uploadedFree, no account

The Keyword Density Checker needs JavaScript to run. See exactly which words and phrases dominate your page — and whether you have overdone it. Everything below — the guide, formula, worked examples and FAQs — works without it.

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Overview

What is the Keyword Density Checker?

The Keyword Density Checker counts how often every word and phrase appears in a piece of text or on a URL, and shows what percentage of the total word count each one makes up. Paste your text or a URL, and it returns single-word, two-word and three-word phrase counts with density percentages, flagging anything that looks unusually repetitive. Writers and SEO editors use it before publishing to check whether a target keyword is genuinely underused, naturally present, or repeated so often it reads as forced — and to see, at a glance, which phrases actually dominate a page rather than guessing.

Keyword density is not a confirmed Google ranking factor, and there is no official "correct" percentage. What it is useful for is a sanity check: catching a keyword you have accidentally stuffed in twelve times, or confirming your target phrase appears at all. Treat the numbers here as a diagnostic, not a target to hit.

Benefits

Why use a free keyword density checker?

One, two and three-word phrases at once

See which single words, and which two- and three-word phrases, repeat most — a single-word count alone misses phrase-level repetition like "digital marketing agency".

Paste text or check a live URL

Analyse a draft directly, or point the tool at a published URL to see what is actually on the page right now.

Over-optimisation flagged automatically

Phrases repeated well beyond natural writing frequency are called out, so you can catch keyword stuffing before a reader — or a search engine — does.

Stop-word filtering

Common function words ("the", "and", "of") are separated out by default so the results show meaningful phrases rather than a list dominated by grammar.

Nothing is stored

Text you paste is analysed in your browser and never saved or logged.

Guide

How do you use the Keyword Density Checker?

1
Paste your text or enter a URL
Paste a draft directly, or provide a live URL to analyse the published page.
2
Set your focus keyword (optional)
Enter the phrase you are targeting to see its exact count and density highlighted against everything else.
3
Review the phrase tables
Check the single-word, two-word and three-word tables to see what actually dominates the text.
4
Fix anything flagged
A phrase pushed well above natural repetition is flagged — rewrite a sentence or two to bring it back toward normal usage.

Formula

How is keyword density checker calculated?

Density (%) = (Keyword occurrences ÷ Total words) × 100

Where:

Keyword occurrences: How many times the exact word or phrase appears in the text
Total words: The total word count of the whole text being analysed

The simple version

Count how many times a word or phrase shows up, divide by the total number of words in the piece, and multiply by 100 to get a percentage. A 1,000-word article that uses "email marketing" 15 times has an email marketing density of 15 ÷ 1,000 × 100 = 1.5%.

Examples

What does it look like in practice?

Single keyword in a short article

Input

"remote work" appears 8 times in a 600-word article

Result

Density: 1.33%

8 ÷ 600 × 100 = 1.33. This sits inside the range most SEO writers consider natural for a primary keyword.

Two-word phrase check

Input

"content strategy" appears 12 times in a 1,200-word article

Result

Density: 1.0%

Two-word phrase density is calculated against total word count, not total phrase count — each occurrence of the two-word phrase counts once, not twice.

Over-optimisation flag

Input

"best running shoes" appears 22 times in a 900-word article

Result

Density: 2.44%, flagged for review

This is high enough, especially for a three-word commercial phrase, to read as repetitive to a human reader — worth checking whether some instances can be replaced with a synonym or pronoun.

Accuracy

How accurate is it?

Counts are exact — the tool tokenises your text and counts literal matches, so the numbers reflect precisely what is on the page, not an estimate.

Matching is case-insensitive but exact on word form by default, so "run" and "running" are counted separately unless you check for both forms.
There is no scientifically validated "ideal" keyword density — the commonly cited 1–3% range is an industry rule of thumb, not a documented Google ranking threshold, and Google has repeatedly said it does not use a density metric this way.
A URL check reflects whatever HTML the page returns at the moment you run it. Content loaded dynamically after page load through JavaScript may not be captured depending on how the page is built.

Details

What should you know before using it?

Commonly cited density ranges used by SEO writers as a rough guide — not an official Google threshold:

Density	General interpretation
Under 0.5%	Likely underused — the term may barely register as a topic of the page.
0.5% – 2.5%	Typical range for a natural primary keyword in most long-form content.
2.5% – 5%	Getting repetitive — worth a manual read-through to check it still sounds natural.
Above 5%	Commonly associated with keyword stuffing, especially for longer phrases. High risk of reading badly to an actual reader, regardless of any SEO effect.

Relationships

Which tools relate to the keyword density checker?

The keyword density checker is one of 7 keyword tools on this site. These are the ones most often used alongside it — either because they handle the next step in the same job, or because they answer a question this tool raises.

Word Counter

Density is calculated against total word count — check the exact word count of a draft alongside its keyword frequencies.

Keyword Difficulty Checker

Once you know your content uses a keyword naturally, check how competitive that keyword actually is before committing to it as a target.

Readability Score Checker

A high keyword density often correlates with awkward, repetitive sentences — cross-check readability alongside density before publishing.

Long Tail Keyword Generator

If your primary keyword density looks fine but the page still feels thin, find related long-tail phrases to cover naturally instead of repeating the same one further.

Applications

When should you use a keyword density checker?

Because the keyword density checker runs entirely in your browser, it suits work you would not want to hand to a third-party server — client files, unpublished drafts, anything under an NDA. These are the situations people reach for it in most often.

Pre-publish content review

Check a draft before it goes live to confirm the target keyword appears enough to signal relevance without reading as forced.

Auditing an existing page

Point the tool at a live URL to see what a page is actually optimised for today, which is sometimes different from what a writer intended.

Spotting accidental repetition

Long articles edited over multiple sessions often end up repeating the same phrase without the writer noticing — a quick check catches it before a reader does.

Competitor content analysis

Run a competing page through the tool to see which phrases it emphasises, as one input into your own content plan.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

What is a good keyword density for SEO?

There is no officially confirmed ideal percentage — Google has stated it does not use a simple density threshold to rank pages. As a practical writing guideline, many SEO writers aim for roughly 0.5–2.5% for a primary keyword in long-form content, using it as a sanity check rather than a target to hit exactly.

How is keyword density calculated?

Divide the number of times a word or phrase appears by the total word count of the text, then multiply by 100. A phrase used 10 times in a 500-word article has a density of 10 ÷ 500 × 100 = 2%.

Does keyword density still matter for SEO in 2026?

Less than it used to, and it never worked the way early SEO advice implied. Modern search engines use language understanding rather than counting exact keyword repetitions, so writing naturally and covering a topic thoroughly matters more than hitting a specific density number. The tool is still useful for catching accidental over-repetition, which reads badly to actual readers regardless of any ranking effect.

What counts as keyword stuffing?

Repeating a word or phrase far beyond what natural writing would produce, often to the point where sentences read awkwardly or the same term appears multiple times in a single paragraph. There is no fixed percentage that defines it — if a phrase would sound repetitive read aloud, it is a sign of stuffing regardless of the exact density number.

Can I check a live webpage instead of pasting text?

Yes. Enter a URL instead of pasting text, and the tool fetches and analyses the page content directly, reflecting what is actually published rather than a draft.

Does this tool count stemmed or plural forms together?

By default it counts exact word forms separately — "run" and "running" are treated as different words. This matters because search engines do understand related word forms even when the exact text does not repeat, so a low density for one exact form does not necessarily mean the topic is underused.

Security

Is the keyword density checker safe to use?

This tool runs entirely inside your browser. Your text, files and settings are processed on your own device and are never uploaded to our servers — there is nothing for us to store, log or leak. You can confirm it yourself: open your browser DevTools, switch to the Network tab, and use the tool. You will not see an upload request. It also means the tool keeps working if your connection drops mid-task.

No account required No file storage HTTPS everywhere

Sources

Where do these figures come from?

Every method, threshold and standard this page relies on, with a link to the document that defines it. Check them — a tool that will not show its sources is asking you to take its word for it.

1
Spam policies for Google web search — Keyword stuffing
Google Search Central
Supports: The description of keyword stuffing as a spam signal Google acts on, rather than a specific density threshold, and the statement that there is no confirmed ideal density.
2
SEO Starter Guide
Google Search Central
Supports: The general guidance to write naturally for readers rather than optimizing for a specific keyword repetition count.

Guides

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