Keyword Density Checker: Word Count and Density in Seconds

Keyword density is a simple measure of how heavily a piece of writing leans on a particular word or phrase. It is the number of times a term appears divided by the total word count, shown as a percentage. This checker runs entirely in your browser: paste your text, and it returns the total words, the terms you use most with their density, and the exact density of any keyword you want to track.

How density is calculated

The tool strips punctuation, counts the words, then counts how often each term shows up. Density for a single word is its count divided by the total, times 100. For a phrase, it counts every word in the phrase toward the share, so a two-word phrase used five times in a 500-word article takes up 10 of those words, a density of 2 percent. The top-terms list hides very common words like the and of, since those swamp every text and reveal nothing about the subject, though they still count toward the total.

What density is actually good for

Density is a diagnostic, not a target. Google has never published an ideal figure, and modern search understands synonyms and topics rather than counting repetitions. So the useful job of this number is to catch over-repetition. If your main keyword is showing up at a density that looks nothing like natural writing, that is a signal to loosen it, not a badge of optimisation. Read the page aloud: if the term grates, the density is too high whatever the percentage reads.

Avoiding keyword stuffing

Google's spam policies specifically call out keyword stuffing, the practice of jamming a term into a page to manipulate rankings, as something that can hurt you. The safe path is boringly reliable: write for the person reading, use the keyword where it genuinely belongs, and lean on related terms and natural phrasing instead of repeating the same string. Then use this checker to confirm nothing has crept too high.

Density is one small input into content that ranks. If you want pages built to win search and get cited by AI answers, not just pass a word-count check, request a free SEO audit and we will show you what moves the needle.