This keyword density checker counts how often each word appears in the text you paste and shows that count as a share of the whole text. It lists up to 20 of your most-used words, leaving out common stop words and short words, so you can spot repetition that reads unnaturally. Google's spam policies count keyword stuffing, including repeating the same words so often that the text sounds unnatural, among the practices that can make a page rank lower.
How to use the keyword density checker
- Paste your article into the box. Copy only the body text: menus, sidebars and footer links would be counted too.
- Choose a minimum word length of 3+, 4+ or 5+ characters. The default is 4+, which skips words such as "cup" and "jar".
- Press Analyze Keyword Density.
- Read the four cards (Total Words, Unique Words, Words Analyzed and Top Keywords), then the table, which ranks words by count and shows each one's density with a bar.
- Edit the text and run it again. The counting happens in your browser, so the text is not sent anywhere.
How the density is calculated
The formula is density = (times the word appears / total words) x 100. Total words means every word in the text, stop words included, so short words such as "the" and "and" make each percentage smaller. Only the letters a to z are read. Numbers and symbols are dropped before counting, which is why the Total Words card can be lower than the live counter under the box.
A few things the keyword density tool does not do:
- It counts single words only. To check a phrase such as "cold brew", count it in your editor and divide by the Total Words figure.
- It does not merge word forms, so "part" and "parts" get separate rows.
- Hyphenated words and contractions stay whole, so "e-mail" is one word.
- Accented letters split a word apart, so the results are only reliable for English.
What the amber and red figures mean
I usually aim for a 1 to 2% density for my primary keyword. Above about 3% the text often starts to sound repetitive, so the tool marks a word amber above 3% and red above 5%. Google gives no safe percentage, so treat these figures as rules of thumb.
Example: check keyword density in a short paragraph
Here is a 67-word paragraph about cold brew, analyzed at the default 4+ characters:
Cold brew coffee is coffee steeped in cold water for 12 to 24 hours. Cold brew tastes smoother than hot coffee because less acid ends up in the cup. To make cold brew at home, mix one part coarse coffee with four parts water, cover the jar and leave it in the fridge. Strain the coffee through a paper filter and dilute it with water or milk.| Keyword | Count | Density | Flag |
|---|---|---|---|
| coffee | 5 | 7.69% | Red |
| cold | 4 | 6.15% | Red |
| brew | 3 | 4.62% | Amber |
| water | 3 | 4.62% | Amber |
| steeped, hours, tastes and others | 1 | 1.54% | None |
Total Words reads 65, two fewer than the live counter, because "12" and "24" are numbers. In a text this short each extra use of a word adds about 1.5 points, so the percentages swing quickly. Replacing two of the five "coffee" mentions with one-word alternatives such as "it" and "grounds" leaves 3 uses, or 4.62%, still amber. On a 1,000-word article the same five mentions would be 0.5%, so run the keyword density checker on the full piece before you edit.
Keyword frequency and topic coverage
Keyword frequency is only one signal of how a page reads. Instead of looking only at your main keyword, check that the related terms a reader would expect also appear in the list. If they are missing, the page may not cover the topic in enough depth. A recipe page that never mentions "ratio" or "grind", for example, probably leaves a cold brew question unanswered.
The guide on how to avoid keyword stuffing covers rewriting overused words, and how long a blog post should be for SEO helps you judge whether a short draft needs more depth.
When to run the keyword density tool
- Before publishing an AI-assisted draft, which can repeat the target phrase in every paragraph.
- On product descriptions written from a template, where the product name tends to appear in every sentence.
- When a page that used to rank has been edited many times and you want to see which words now dominate it.
For the rest of the edit, the readability score checker shows whether your sentences are getting too long, and the word counter gives word, character and reading-time figures. More checks for titles, tags and crawling are in the SEO tools collection.
