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Free Keyword Density Checker: Analyze Word and Phrase Usage

A keyword density checker shows how often a word or phrase appears in a text compared with the total word count. Density is calculated as (keyword count divided by total words) x 100. A 500-word article that uses "digital marketing" 10 times has a density of 2 percent for that phrase.

Paste your content below, enter a target keyword and the WritoryBuzz tool returns the density percentage, term frequency, the most common single words, two-word and three-word phrases, over-optimization alerts and a sentence-level map of where the keyword appears.

Check your keyword density above
Quick start
1Paste your content
2Enter your target keyword or phrase
3Choose analysis options
4Click Analyze Now
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Analyze Keyword Density

Paste text to begin
Try an example:
Plain text or HTML accepted. HTML tags are automatically stripped before analysis.

Target Keyword

Analysis Options

Key Takeaway:: There is no ideal keyword density.
Google has never published a target percentage, and its John Mueller has said it does not use keyword density as a ranking factor. Use density as a stuffing alarm, not a goal. If the text reads naturally, the number is rarely a problem. Check phrases too. Bigram and trigram counts show what the page is really about.

What Is Keyword Density?

Keyword density measures repetition. It is the share of the words in a text that are your keyword. It was an early on-page SEO idea from the era when search engines relied heavily on word frequency to guess what a page was about.

Formula

Keyword density (%) = (number of times the keyword appears / total words in the text) x 100

Example: 12 mentions in a 800-word article = 12 / 800 x 100 = 1.5 percent.

A longer phrase counts the same way. If "free keyword density checker" appears four times in 1,000 words, its density is 0.4 percent, even though it contains four words each time.

How to Use This Keyword Density Checker

  1. 1
    STEP 1 Paste your content into the box. Plain text and HTML both work, and HTML tags are stripped automatically before analysis.
  2. 2
    STEP 2 Enter your target keyword or phrase. Optionally set a target density percentage to compare against.
  3. 3
    STEP 3 Choose analysis options. Filter stop words, case-insensitive matching, include bigrams, include trigrams and the number of top keywords to show.
  4. 4
    STEP 4 Click Analyze Now. Review the density for your target, the top keywords table and the distribution map.
  5. 5
    STEP 5 Edit and re-check. Change the text, run it again and compare.
  6. 6
    STEP 6 Export to CSV if you want the numbers in a spreadsheet.

New to the tool? Use the example buttons. The SEO blog sample and content marketing sample show a healthy text, and the keyword stuffing demo shows what an over-optimized page looks like.

Check your keyword density above

What Is the Ideal Keyword Density for SEO?

There is no ideal keyword density. Google has never published a target range, and Google's John Mueller has said (2021) that keyword density is not a ranking factor. What Google does fight is keyword stuffing, which its spam policies describe as filling a page with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate rankings, often in a way that reads unnaturally. See the Google Search spam policies for the wording.

Many SEO writers still use rough bands as a quick sanity check. These are practitioner rules of thumb, not Google rules:

DensityReadingWhat to do
Below 0.5%Possibly under-representedCheck whether the keyword appears in the title, opening paragraph and a heading.
0.5% to 2%Usually naturalNothing to fix. Focus on usefulness.
2% to 3%Worth reviewingRead it aloud and replace repeats with synonyms or pronouns.
Above 3%Higher stuffing riskRewrite unless the term is naturally repeated, as in a reference page.

Context beats the number. A technical reference might repeat a precise term at 3 percent without any problem. A product page may show a higher figure for the brand name. If the sentence sounds forced when read aloud, change it, whatever the percentage says.

Reading Your Results

Density and term frequency

Density gives the percentage. Term frequency (TF) shows how common the term is relative to the document. Both help you compare drafts of the same article. They are less useful for comparing different articles with different lengths.

Top keywords

This table lists the most frequent words after stop words are removed. If your top terms do not match your topic, the page may drift. If an unrelated word dominates, find out why.

Bigrams and trigrams

Bigrams are two-word phrases and trigrams are three-word phrases. Most long-tail keywords are bigrams or trigrams, so these tables show whether your page repeats the phrases people search for. They also reveal accidental repetition, such as "click here" appearing 20 times.

Stop words

Stop words are common function words such as the, a, is, and, of, in and to. The tool filters over 200 English stop words by default so that the top keyword list shows content words. Filtering is turned off for exact-phrase matching, so phrases like "how to" still count.

Distribution map and alerts

The sentence-level map shows where your keyword sits in the text. A keyword packed into one paragraph and absent elsewhere is a different problem from one repeated evenly. The over-optimization alert flags densities that look unnatural.

Citable definition

Keyword stuffing is the practice of loading a page with repeated keywords to manipulate search rankings. Google treats it as spam. Keyword density, the percentage of words that match a keyword, is a way to spot it, not a ranking target.

How to Fix Keyword Stuffing

  1. Find the paragraphs with the heaviest repetition on the distribution map.
  2. Replace some repeats with pronouns, synonyms and related terms.
  3. Rewrite sentences that exist only to include the keyword.
  4. Keep the keyword in the title, the opening paragraph and at least one heading, where it helps readers.
  5. Add useful detail such as examples, steps and data, which also lowers density naturally.
  6. Re-check and read the page aloud.

Who Uses a Keyword Density Checker

Bloggers and content writers

Polishing a draft before publishing.

Editors

Reviewing freelancer content for stuffing.

SEO consultants

Auditing old pages written under outdated density rules.

Students

Learning how text analysis works.

Ecommerce teams

Checking category and product copy for repeated brand names.

Common Mistakes With Keyword Density

  • Treating a percentage as a target. Writing to reach 2 percent produces stiff copy.
  • Ignoring variants. Search engines understand synonyms and related phrases. You need not repeat an exact match.
  • Counting boilerplate. Menus and footers pasted into the box skew the result. Paste only the main content.
  • Comparing across lengths. A 300-word page and a 3,000-word guide cannot be judged by the same raw count.
  • Forgetting search intent. A page can have perfect density and still fail because it does not answer the question.

Honest Limits of Keyword Density

  • Density does not measure quality, expertise or relevance. It is a counting exercise.
  • It cannot tell you what to write. For that you need to study the search results for your keyword.
  • Different tools count slightly differently, for example on how they treat hyphens, plurals and HTML. Expect small differences between checkers.
  • Stop word handling changes results. Be consistent when comparing drafts.

Once your keyword usage is under control, check readability and length with the Word Counter, then test whether your page is ready for AI answers with the AEO Readiness Checker.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is keyword density?

Keyword density is the percentage of words in a text that match a keyword or phrase. The formula is keyword count divided by total words, multiplied by 100.

What is a good keyword density for SEO?

There is no official good number. Google has not published a target. Many writers treat 0.5 to 2 percent as comfortable, but natural writing matters more than any percentage.

Does Google use keyword density as a ranking factor?

Google's John Mueller has said it does not. Google does act against keyword stuffing, so unnatural repetition can hurt a page.

How do I calculate keyword density?

Divide the number of times the keyword appears by the total word count, then multiply by 100. For example, 10 mentions in 500 words is 2 percent.

What is keyword stuffing?

Keyword stuffing is repeating keywords unnaturally to manipulate rankings. Google lists it in its spam policies.

What are bigrams and trigrams?

Bigrams are two-word phrases and trigrams are three-word phrases. Counting them shows which multi-word terms your content emphasises, which is useful for long-tail keywords.

Why are stop words filtered?

Stop words such as the, a and of are so common that they would fill the top of the list without telling you anything about your topic. The tool filters over 200 by default.

Can I check HTML instead of plain text?

Yes. The tool accepts plain text or HTML and strips tags before analysis.

Is the keyword density checker free?

Yes. It is free, needs no signup and can export results to CSV. Paste your content and check your keyword density, then edit for readers first.

Ready to try the Keyword Density Checker?

Free to use. Open the tool and get your result in seconds.

Check your keyword density above
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