🔎 Keyword Density Checker

How keyword density analysis works

Type or paste any body of text into the box above and this tool counts every word, removes common English stop words (like "the", "a" or "is") and ranks the remaining terms by frequency. Density is calculated as word count ÷ total words × 100. The bar for each keyword is scaled relative to the most frequent term, giving you an instant visual picture of how balanced — or unbalanced — your keyword use is across the piece.

If you add a focus keyword or phrase, the tool highlights it separately, counts exact occurrences (case-insensitive) and gives it a dedicated density reading alongside the full-word table. This is especially useful when you have a primary target phrase in mind and want to confirm it appears naturally without being over-used.

Interpreting the results

Green: well-balanced (up to ~2%)

Words appearing at less than 2% of total words are marked green. This range is generally considered natural and safe. Your content reads as human-written and search engines can identify topic relevance without seeing obvious manipulation.

Amber: monitor closely (2–3%)

Terms in the 2–3% range are flagged amber. They are not necessarily harmful, but it is worth reviewing whether the repetition sounds natural when read aloud. Sometimes the same word appears often because it is genuinely central to the topic; other times it is a sign the text was drafted around the keyword rather than around the reader.

Red: potential over-optimisation (above 3%)

Anything above 3% density is highlighted in red. While there is no hard rule in any search engine's guidelines, experienced SEOs broadly agree that repeating a single term more than three times in every hundred words creates unnatural-sounding prose and may attract algorithmic scrutiny. Rewrite those sections to use synonyms, pronouns and related phrases instead.

Keyword density best practices for SEO

• Write naturally first, then check density. The goal is to confirm your chosen topic is well-covered, not to hit a specific number.
• Use semantic variants and related terms rather than repeating the exact same phrase — this also helps your page rank for long-tail queries.
• Check headings separately: a keyword that appears in multiple H2 or H3 tags will feel repetitive even at a modest overall density.
• Image alt text, title attributes and anchor text count toward total keyword presence but are not included in a plain-text paste. Keep those varied too.
• Short pages of under 300 words are more sensitive to density issues because one or two extra mentions can quickly push a keyword over 3%.
• After rewriting, run the updated text through the checker again to confirm the balance has improved.

What the readability score means

The Flesch Reading Ease score (0–100) measures how easy your content is to read. It combines two factors: average sentence length (longer sentences are harder) and average syllables per word (longer words are harder). A higher score means simpler, more accessible writing.

• 90–100 — Very Easy: Short sentences, simple words. Suitable for a 5th-grade reading level. Ideal for broad consumer audiences.
• 70–89 — Easy: Conversational and clear. Works well for blog posts, landing pages and general web copy.
• 60–69 — Standard: Plain English for most adults. A good target for most marketing and editorial content.
• 50–59 — Fairly Difficult: Some complex sentences or jargon. Consider simplifying for broader reach.
• 30–49 — Difficult: Academic or professional prose. May alienate casual readers; fine for specialist audiences.
• 0–29 — Very Difficult: Dense, technical writing. Only appropriate for expert audiences who expect it.

Google's Helpful Content guidance doesn't cite a specific score, but it consistently rewards content written for the reader rather than the algorithm. Targeting a score of 60 or above for general-purpose SEO content is a reasonable rule of thumb.

How this tool handles stop words

Stop words are the most frequent words in any language — articles, prepositions, conjunctions and common verbs like "the", "a", "of", "is", "are" and "in". They carry no SEO signal on their own, so this tool filters them out by default to show you only the content words that matter for topic relevance. Toggle the stop words checkbox off if you want to see the raw, unfiltered frequency list — for example, when analysing speech patterns or checking for accidental repetition of any word.

Frequently asked questions

What is keyword density and why does it matter?

Keyword density is the percentage of times a specific word appears relative to the total word count of a piece of text. It matters for SEO because it helps search engines understand what topics a page covers, while also signalling whether the content has been written naturally or stuffed with repetitions.

What is the ideal keyword density?

There is no single ideal number, but most SEO practitioners aim for the primary keyword at roughly 1–2% of total words. Values above 3% risk looking like keyword stuffing; values near 0% may mean the topic is not addressed clearly enough.

Does Google penalise for keyword stuffing?

Yes. Google's guidelines explicitly call out keyword stuffing as a spam practice that can lead to a manual penalty or algorithmic demotion. Use this tool to catch obvious cases before publishing.

Can I check multi-word phrases?

Yes — enter a phrase in the Focus keyword field and the tool counts exact occurrences of that whole phrase and calculates its density separately from single-word counts.

Is my content private?

Yes. All analysis runs in your browser. Nothing you paste is sent to any server.