How is keyword density calculated?

Keyword density is calculated with the formula: (Keyword Count ÷ Total Word Count) × 100. For example, if a keyword appears 10 times in a 500-word text, the density is 2%. Our tool calculates this automatically for every word in your content.

What is the ideal keyword density?

The generally accepted SEO guideline is 0.5% to 3%. Below 0.5% the keyword may be too sparse for search engines to recognize topical relevance; above 3% risks appearing unnatural or triggering spam filters. However, this range varies by context and content type.

What texts can I use this tool for?

The tool works with any written content: blog posts, product descriptions, articles, academic papers, landing pages, and more. You can either paste text directly or enter a URL to fetch and analyze a live web page.

How should I interpret the results?

The tool shows each word's frequency and percentage. Words marked Optimal fall in the 0.5–3% range. Low means the word is underrepresented and High means it may be overused. Use these signals alongside your SEO goals to decide whether to adjust word usage in your content.

What are stop words and should I ignore them?

Stop words are common function words like 'the', 'and', 'is', 'in' that carry no topical meaning. Enabling the 'Ignore stop words' option removes them from results so you can focus on meaningful keywords. For SEO analysis, it's usually best to filter them out.

Does keyword density still matter in 2026?

Keyword density is less dominant than it was in the early days of SEO, but it remains a useful baseline check. Modern search engines focus more on semantic relevance and topical authority. Still, a keyword density audit helps catch both underoptimization and keyword stuffing — two extremes that can harm rankings.

Keyword Density Checker - Analyze Keyword Frequency Online

2on / / Tools / Dev Tools / Keyword Density Checker

Keyword Density Checker

Min. word length:

Ignore stop words

Total Words

Unique Words

Keyword	Count	Density	Status

What Is Keyword Density and Why Does It Matter for SEO?

Keyword density refers to the percentage of times a specific keyword or phrase appears in a piece of content relative to the total word count. It has long been a fundamental concept in search engine optimization (SEO), helping writers and marketers understand how prominently a topic is featured in their content.

The formula is straightforward: Keyword Density (%) = (Keyword Count / Total Words) × 100. For example, if the word "marketing" appears 15 times in a 1,000-word article, its keyword density is 1.5%.

Search engines like Google use keyword analysis as one of many signals to understand what a page is about. While modern algorithms have moved far beyond simple keyword counting toward semantic understanding and topical relevance, keyword density remains a useful diagnostic tool. It helps identify whether a target keyword is underrepresented — or overused to the point of keyword stuffing.

Keyword stuffing — artificially inflating keyword frequency to manipulate rankings — is explicitly penalized by Google. Pages that repeat the same phrase excessively appear unnatural to readers and trigger algorithmic filters. The generally accepted safe range is 0.5% to 3%, though context matters: a highly technical article may naturally repeat a specialized term more often than a general lifestyle piece.

Beyond individual keywords, modern SEO benefits from analyzing related terms and semantic variations. Rather than repeating the exact same phrase, using synonyms and contextually related words signals topical depth to search engines. A keyword density checker helps you audit this balance — ensuring your primary terms appear enough to be noticed, without compromising the natural flow of your writing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Checking keyword density helps you ensure your target keywords appear often enough for search engines to understand your content's topic, while avoiding overuse that could trigger keyword stuffing penalties. It's a quick way to audit content before publishing.