Keyword Density Checker

How to use the Keyword Density Checker

1. Paste your text, or the full HTML of a page. Auto-detect strips tags, scripts and styles so only visible words are counted.
2. Choose single words, two-word or three-word phrases, and set the minimum number of times a phrase must appear.
3. Sort the table by phrase, count or density, and click any phrase to highlight every use of it in your text.
4. Type a target keyword to see its count and density and whether it appears in the title, meta description, H1 and opening.

Features

• One-, two- and three-word phrase counts with density
• Reads plain text or HTML, ignoring markup, scripts and styles
• Optional stop-word filter so filler words do not crowd the list
• Sortable table and click-to-highlight in the text
• Target keyword check for title, meta description, H1 and first 100 words
• Phrases never jump across sentence breaks, so counts stay meaningful

What keyword density means

Keyword density is the share of a text taken up by a word or phrase. For a single word it is simply the number of uses divided by the total word count. For multi-word phrases this tool multiplies by the number of words in the phrase, so the figure tells you how much of the text the phrase occupies:

Density = (times used × words in phrase) ÷ total words × 100

Example: in an 800-word article, “cold brew” appears 6 times. That is 6 × 2 ÷ 800 × 100 = 1.5%. The single word “coffee” used 12 times gives 12 ÷ 800 × 100 = 1.5% as well.

Is there an ideal density?

No. Old SEO advice recommended hitting a fixed percentage, but modern search engines understand synonyms, related terms and context. Google’s spam policies specifically list keyword stuffing, meaning filling a page with repeated words to manipulate rankings, as something that can hurt a page. Use density as a diagnostic, not a target: it shows whether your main topic is clearly present and whether you are leaning on one phrase so much that the writing sounds robotic.

How to read the results

• Your main topic is missing from the top of the list. The text may be vague. Name the subject plainly in the opening and in headings.
• One phrase dominates with a high density. Read those sentences aloud. Swap some uses for pronouns, synonyms or more specific terms.
• Two-word phrases you did not expect. These often reveal the real focus of a draft, or a habit such as starting many sentences the same way.

Single words versus phrases

Single-word counts are noisy: “coffee” can appear in many unrelated contexts. Two- and three-word phrases are closer to what people actually search for, such as “cold brew coffee” or “french press ratio”. Switch between the three views to get the full picture. Phrases are counted within sentences only, so “brew. Coffee” is never counted as “brew coffee”.

Stop words and minimum frequency

Stop words are very common function words like “the”, “and”, “of” and “to”. They would fill the top of every list, so the filter removes single stop words and any phrase that starts or ends with one. Turn the filter off if you want an exact frequency count for linguistic work. The minimum frequency hides phrases that appear only once, which keeps long articles readable; set it to 1 to see everything.

Checking a target keyword in HTML

When you paste HTML, the checker also reads the <title>, meta description and first <h1>, which are the places readers and search engines look first to understand a page. Placing your main phrase naturally in the title, the main heading and the first paragraph is a sensible habit. If the title or description need work, draft them with the Meta Tag Generator, and use the Word Counter for reading time and overall length.

Tips for natural keyword use

• Write for the reader first, then check density as a final pass.
• Use variations and related terms that a knowledgeable person would naturally include.
• Keep the main phrase in places that matter rather than repeating it in every paragraph.

Frequently asked questions