Keyword Density Checker

Global tools

Paste a page and get the phrase table for it - the words and phrases it uses most, how often each one appears, what share of the text it accounts for and where it first turns up. Then type the keyword you are writing for, and the page checks the nine places it is usually expected to be: the text, the opening paragraph, the title, the description, the address, the spread and the exact form. Every figure is in the page before any JavaScript runs, because the whole analysis is a function of the text and the page’s built-in example is computed from the same rules.

Everything happens in this tab as you type. There is no upload button on this page because there is no upload: the text never leaves the browser.

The phrase to check against the text, the title, the description and the address. Leave it empty and the page reports the phrase table alone. Nothing here is stemmed, so a singular never matches a plural.

Whether the table counts single words, two-word phrases or three. A phrase is a run of words inside one sentence, and every word in it counts towards the total the figure is divided by.

Whether `of the` and its neighbors are counted. They are left out by default, which keeps the table from being four rows of one preposition without throwing away `cat sat`.

How many phrases to list, commonest first. A long text holds hundreds of distinct phrases, so this cap is what keeps the table readable rather than the limit of what was counted.

What a search result would show as the heading of the page. It is measured in characters and cut at 60, which is about what a result shows before it starts truncating.

The address the page will live at. Hyphens in it are read as spaces, which makes an address the one place a keyword can be read before the text is read at all.

The sentence under the title in a result. It ranks nothing on its own, and a result page rewrites it more often than it is given credit for - the sample above runs past the 155 characters this page measures it against, so the cut is visible.

The word counter's switch, doing the same work here: it decides whether `well-known` is one word or two, and therefore what every density on this page is divided by.

Whether `2026`, `40%` and `3.14` are words. A page full of figures is counted differently under each setting, and the phrase table moves with the total.

Leave it blank for "keywords-report.txt" and "keywords-phrases.csv".

Results update as you type. Nothing leaves your device.

Density of "keyword density"

1.38%

3 occurrences in 217 words - 2.76% of the words once the phrase's own length is counted, first at 0.0% in.

Words
217 the same count the word counter gives
Distinct phrases
75 53 of them seen exactly once
Phrases listed
20 capped at 20 rows
Most used
8 times page
Focus keyword
3 times keyword density
Density
1.38% occurrences divided by the words in the text

The 20 most used words

#PhraseWordsTimesDensity %Share of words %First at %Opening paragraph
1page183.693.6911.1yes
2phrase162.762.7618.4yes
3one152.302.3012.4yes
4words141.841.8420.7yes
5Keyword131.381.380.0yes
6density131.381.380.5yes
7counts131.381.3812.9yes
8search120.920.923.2yes
9engine120.920.923.7yes
10Two120.920.926.9yes
11different120.920.928.8yes
12word120.920.9216.6yes
13table120.920.9222.6yes
14cannot120.920.9228.6yes
15figure120.920.9230.0yes
162120.920.9238.2no
17first120.920.9240.1no
18paragraph120.920.9242.4no
19way120.920.9256.2no
20reads120.920.9273.3no
Density is the occurrences divided by the 217 words in the text. The share of words multiplies each occurrence by the 1 word in the phrase, so a two-word phrase always shows twice the density in that column - and that is the first thing two density tools disagree about.
53 of the 75 distinct phrases here appear exactly once, which is how ordinary prose behaves: a table in which everything repeats is a table about a list rather than about a text.
The first-at figure is where the first occurrence sits as a percentage of the text, and the last column says whether that occurrence is inside the opening paragraph.

Rows are sorted by occurrences first and by the position of the first mention second, so a phrase mentioned once in the opening line ranks above one mentioned once in the last paragraph. The list is capped by the row count on the form.

Where the numbers for "keyword density" come from

StepThis textThe arithmetic
Times the phrase appears3counted over the whole text, sentence by sentence
Words in the text217the word counter's own total, under the same two switches
Words in the phrase2the phrase length on the form
Density1.38%3 / 217, as a percentage
Share of words2.76%3 x 2 / 217, as a percentage
First mention at0.0% inword 0 of 217
Average position48.4% inthe mean position of every occurrence
A tool that divides by characters, or by words as a spell checker sees them, or by a phrase length of one whatever you typed, reports a different figure on this same text - and now you can work out which of the three it changed.
The same 3 occurrences are 1.38% as a density and 2.76% as a share of the words, because a 2-word phrase carries 2 words into the count with every occurrence.

The row is the focus keyword while that keyword appears in the text and the commonest phrase otherwise, so this table always explains a figure printed on the page.

The focus keyword: keyword density

CheckThis textVerdict
Density1.38%fine
Words it accounts for2.76%for reference
In the opening paragraphyesfine
In the first tenthyes, at 0.0% infine
In the titleyesfine
In the descriptionyesfine
In the web addressyesfine
Exact form against loose form3 exact, 3 with all of its words in one sentencefor reference
Spread through the textaverage position 48.4% inlook at this
The keyword was read as 2 words - `keyword density` - and found 3 times in the text, and 3 where all of its words sit inside one sentence.
Fine is a pass, "look at this" is advice rather than a failure, missing is something the keyword does not do anywhere, and "for reference" is a figure with no pass or fail attached to it.

The density band the verdicts come from - half a percent to two and a half percent - is a habit of the trade rather than a published rule, and the three checks about the title, the description and the address are the ones a search engine can read before it reads the text.

Why each check says what it says

  • Density: Inside the half a percent to two and a half percent band most guides suggest, which is advice about readability rather than a rule.
  • Words it accounts for: A 2-word phrase counted 3 times covers 2.76% of the words while its density is 1.38%: the two differ by a factor of 2, and the page prints both because tools disagree about which one is "keyword density".
  • In the opening paragraph: The opening paragraph is where a reader and a crawler both decide what the page is about, so a phrase that only arrives in the third one is doing less work than its density suggests.
  • In the first tenth: Measured by word position rather than by paragraph, because one long opening paragraph can hold a third of a page.
  • In the title: The title is the strongest signal on the page and the first thing a reader sees in a result. A search engine may rewrite it, but the words it starts from are these.
  • In the description: A description ranks nothing by itself, but it is the sentence that decides whether the result is clicked - and it is often quoted from the page rather than written for the search engine.
  • In the web address: Hyphens in the address are read as spaces, so `/keyword-density-checker` matches `keyword density`. Changing an address that is already indexed costs more than it is usually worth.
  • Exact form against loose form: Nothing here is stemmed, so a plural or a different ending counts as a different word. If you need `run` to match `running`, that needs a dictionary, and this page will not pretend to have one.
  • Spread through the text: Early mentions stay in a reader's memory and in any summary of the text. Four mentions in the last paragraph are not the same page as four mentions spread through it.

The search result, and where it would be cut

Line of the resultCharactersCut-off riskWhat a result would show
Title40comfortably insideKeyword Density: How Often Is Too Often?
Description182over the limitKeyword density is the share of a page that one phrase accounts for. Count the phrase frequencies, see where each one first appears, and check the figure…
Address49never cut by lengthdanfio.com › tools › keyword-density-checker
Characters, not pixels: the familiar 580-pixel title and 920-pixel description come from a font the result page picks, so the only unit this page can count honestly is characters - and a wide character is not a narrow one.
A result page rewrites titles and descriptions more often than it is given credit for, taking the words from the page itself, so this is what it could show rather than what it will.
The address is printed as a breadcrumb because that is how a result shows it; the words in it are read as words, hyphens and all.

The limits used here are 60 characters for a title and 155 for a description, which is the length a result page usually shows before it cuts at a word boundary and marks the cut with an ellipsis.

The rules in force

  • A phrase is listed only while its first and last words come from outside the commonest English words, which is what keeps the table from being four rows of `of the` without discarding `cat sat`.
  • A phrase never crosses a sentence or a paragraph boundary, so `measurement The` - two words either side of a full stop - is not a phrase in this table.
  • Nothing is stemmed: `run` and `running` are two different words, a plural is a different word from its singular, and the page prints the loose count as well when all the words of a keyword land in one sentence in another order.
  • Density is the occurrences divided by the 217 words in the text; the share of words is the phrase's own words divided by the same total. Nothing here is divided by characters, sentences or paragraphs.
  • The words come from the word counter, with the same hyphen and number switches, so the two pages cannot disagree about what a word is - or about how many there are. That rule decides most arguments: a hyphen inside a compound and a standalone number are each a word or not a word depending on those two switches.

The whole answer, as a report

Keyword density report

The text
  Words............................. 217
  Paragraphs........................ 3
  Phrase length..................... 1 word
  Common words...................... left out of the table
  Distinct phrases.................. 75
  Phrases seen once................. 53

The 20 most used phrases
  page                             8 times    3.69% density    3.69% of words  first at 11%
  phrase                           6 times    2.76% density    2.76% of words  first at 18%
  one                              5 times    2.30% density    2.30% of words  first at 12%
  words                            4 times    1.84% density    1.84% of words  first at 21%
  Keyword                          3 times    1.38% density    1.38% of words  first at 0%
  density                          3 times    1.38% density    1.38% of words  first at 0%
  counts                           3 times    1.38% density    1.38% of words  first at 13%
  search                           2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 3%
  engine                           2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 4%
  Two                              2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 7%
  different                        2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 9%
  word                             2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 17%
  table                            2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 23%
  cannot                           2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 29%
  figure                           2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 30%
  2                                2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 38%
  first                            2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 40%
  paragraph                        2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 42%
  way                              2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 56%
  reads                            2 times    0.92% density    0.92% of words  first at 73%

Focus keyword: keyword density
  Occurrences....................... 3
  Density........................... 1.38%
  Words it accounts for............. 2.76%
  Exact against loose............... 3 exact, 3 with its words in one sentence
  First occurrence.................. 0.0% in
  Average position.................. 48.4% in

  Density........................... 1.38%
  Words it accounts for............. 2.76%
  In the opening paragraph.......... yes
  In the first tenth................ yes, at 0.0% in
  In the title...................... yes
  In the description................ yes
  In the web address................ yes
  Exact form against loose form..... 3 exact, 3 with all of its words in one sentence
  Spread through the text........... average position 48.4% in

The search result
  Title............................. 40 characters, safe
    Keyword Density: How Often Is Too Often?
  Description....................... 182 characters, over
    Keyword density is the share of a page that one phrase accounts for. Count the phrase frequencies, see where each one first appears, and check the figure…
  Address........................... danfio.com › tools › keyword-density-checker

Rules in force
  Common words...................... a phrase must not start or end with one
  A phrase never crosses............ a sentence or a paragraph
  Stemming.......................... none: run and running are different words
  Density........................... occurrences divided by the words in the text
  Characters, not pixels............ 60 for a title, 155 for a description

Nothing was uploaded: the text never left the page that counted it.

Copy it, or download it. The bytes in the box are the bytes in the file, and the first download button hands you exactly this.

What the numbers do not say

  • No search engine publishes a keyword density it prefers, and there is no figure to hit. The half a percent to two and a half percent band this page quotes is advice about writing: below it a page reads as a mention rather than a topic, and above it a reader notices the repetition whatever a crawler makes of it.
  • Nothing here is stemmed. `run` does not count `running`, `page` does not count `pages`, and a plural is a different word from its singular - so a tool reporting a higher count than this one is usually stemming, or counting a phrase word by word instead of as a phrase.
  • A phrase never crosses a sentence or a paragraph boundary, so two words either side of a full stop are not a phrase. That is the rule a tool which strips punctuation before counting will break, and on a text with short sentences it is usually worth a few extra occurrences.
  • The rows above are the commonest 20 of 75 distinct words in the text, capped by the row count on the form. 53 of them appear exactly once, and a keyword hidden in that tail is a keyword the table will not show you - which is why the focus keyword is counted over the whole text rather than looked up in the table.
  • A density says how often something is said and nothing about whether it is worth saying. The spread matters more than the average: a phrase in the title, the opening paragraph and the first tenth of the text is doing work that the same phrase in the last paragraph is not, and the position columns are printed for that reason.
  • The address is the one place a keyword can be read before the text is: hyphens in a URL are read as spaces, so `/keyword-density-checker` matches `keyword density` - and the address above matched "keyword density" as typed.
Counted in this tab by the same function that produced the numbers already in the page you loaded, so nothing was sent anywhere - which matters here more than on most pages, because the text people paste into a density checker is usually an unpublished draft.

What makes this page worth reading rather than obeying is that it prints the arithmetic. A keyword density is one number divided by another, and two tools that disagree about your page disagree about one of three things: whether a two-word phrase counts as one word or two, what the number is divided by, and whether the commonest English words were counted at all. All three are switches here, and the table showing the division with your own numbers in it means the figure can be reproduced on paper.

About this keyword density checker

Keyword density is one number divided by another, and simply that is why two tools can disagree about the same page. This checker prints the phrase table, the share each phrase accounts for, where it first appears, and the three switches that decide the division, so the figure can be reproduced on paper rather than believed.

The nine places a keyword is usually expected - body text, opening paragraph, title, description, address, spread and exact match - come from the way search snippets and titles are read, not from a proprietary formula, and every one is printed whether it passes or fails. The whole analysis is a function of the pasted text, computed the same way for the page’s built-in example and in your browser.

There is no account, no saved project and no tracking pixel: paste a page, read the table, close the tab. Density is a description of a draft, not a ranking factor you can squeeze - the page says so plainly, because chasing a percentage is the fastest way to write worse text that reads as though it were written for a counter.

How this keyword density checker works

What keyword density is, and what it is not

Keyword density is the number of times a phrase appears divided by the number of words in the text, expressed as a percentage. That is the whole definition, and every argument about the figure comes from the two halves of it rather than from the division: whether a two-word phrase is one occurrence or two words, and which words the total contains.

It is not a ranking factor, and no search engine publishes a density it prefers. The half a percent to two and a half percent band most guides quote is advice about writing - below it a page reads as a mention rather than a topic, above it a reader notices the repetition - so the verdicts on this page come from that band while saying out loud that it is advice. What a density is genuinely good for is finding accidents: the phrase that appears eleven times in the opening paragraph, the page written for a keyword that never appears in it, the two near-identical pages competing with each other.

The two figures, because one of them is ambiguous

A two-word phrase counted twenty times in a thousand words is two percent dense, and it also accounts for four percent of the words, because each occurrence carries two words into the count. Both are printed for every row and the difference is exactly the phrase length, so a figure quoted from a tool that reports only one of them can be wrong by a factor of two or three without anybody lying.

The division is then printed with the numbers in it: the occurrences, the words in the text, the words in the phrase, and the result. A density that cannot be reproduced from those four things is not a measurement, and this page will not print one.

No stemming, and a phrase that never crosses a sentence

Nothing here is stemmed. `run` and `running` are two different words, a plural is a different word from its singular, and `page` does not match `pages`. That is a real limitation and the page states it rather than hiding it, which is why a second count is printed beside the first: the loose count, which is how many sentences hold every word of your keyword, in any order. If the exact count is zero and the loose count is three, the text is talking about your keyword in other words rather than ignoring it.

A phrase also never crosses a sentence or a paragraph boundary. `measurement The` - two words either side of a full stop in the sample text - is not a phrase in this table, because a tool that counted it would be treating punctuation as a word. On a page of short sentences that one rule is worth several occurrences, and it is exactly the kind of difference a visitor cannot see from the outside.

The words come from the word counter, switches and all

The word and character counter is the fourth tool of this batch, and this page counts words with the same rule. That matters more than it sounds: the hyphen switch and the number switch on this form behave exactly as they do there, so `well-known` is two words or one and `2026` is a word or nothing according to the setting you choose. Whichever you choose, the total here matches the total there, so a disagreement between the two pages about how many words a text holds is impossible rather than merely unlikely.

Those switches decide the denominator of every density on the page, which is why the number switch is worth a second look: a report full of figures is a different text to divide by. It also decides whether `2026` appears in the phrase table at all, and it is offered rather than assumed because a spell checker and a search engine do not agree about numbers.

The search result, measured in characters because pixels cannot be measured

The last table is the result page: a title, a description and an address, cut where a result would cut them. The measurement is in characters - 60 for a title and 155 for a description - and the page says why: the familiar 580-pixel title depends on a font a search engine draws with, on a device it chooses, and no page can measure somebody else’s font. Characters are a proxy, and the risk bands are the honest version of a pixel count.

Two caveats are printed with it. A result page rewrites titles and descriptions more often than it is given credit for, taking the words from the page itself, so this is what it could show rather than what it will. And a description ranks nothing on its own: it decides whether the result is clicked, which is a different job from deciding where it appears.

Worked examples

Each example below was run through the calculator on this page when the site was built, so the numbers match what you see when you enter the same inputs.

The same page with the phrase length set to two

Phrase length: Two words (keyword density)

Density of "keyword density"

1.38%

3 occurrences in 217 words - 2.76% of the words once the phrase's own length is counted, first at 0.0% in.

Words: 217 · Distinct phrases: 42 · Phrases listed: 20 · Most used: 3 times

Every other setting is the form as it opens. The focus keyword costs 1.38% either way - three occurrences in 217 words - and the table changes what it is about: `Keyword density` and `one counts` share the top with three occurrences each, and the share of words column doubles to 2.76% because each occurrence now carries two words into the count. This single switch explains most of the difference between two density tools looking at the same page.

The keyword the page never uses, and the loose count that finds it

Focus keyword: density keyword

Most used phrase

page

8 times in 217 words - 3.69% density and 3.69% of the words, first at 11.1% in.

Words: 217 · Distinct phrases: 75 · Phrases listed: 20 · Most used: 8 times

The exact phrase is not in the text, so the density is zero and the verdict says so - but three sentences hold both of its words, which the exact-against-loose check prints before anything is concluded from the zero. Nothing here is stemmed, so a page that says `running` where the keyword says `run` lands in exactly this state, and the warning above the tables says which of the two cases this is: words in another order, or a keyword the text does not use at all.

A text where the common words are the only phrases left

The text to count: Send it now. · Phrase length: Three words (keyword density checker)

Nothing to count

3 words

Every 3-word phrase in this text starts or ends with one of the commonest English words, and those are left out of the table: a phrase is listed only while its first and last words come from outside that list.

Words: 3 · Paragraphs: 1 · Phrase length: 3 words · Common words: left out

Three words are enough for a three-word phrase, but every phrase of that length here begins or ends with one of the commonest English words, and those are left out of the table - so the page refuses to draw one and names the rule that emptied it rather than showing an empty box. Setting the phrase length to one word, or counting the common words, fills the table; the refusal says both of those things.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good keyword density?

There is no published answer, because no search engine has ever given one. The half a percent to two and a half percent band that most guides quote is editorial advice about how a page reads rather than a measured threshold, and this page prints it as advice: a density below it usually means the page mentions the topic instead of covering it, and above it a reader notices the repetition whatever a crawler makes of it. The figures worth acting on are the ones beside it - where the phrase first appears, whether it is in the title and the address, and whether the mentions are spread through the text or piled into one paragraph.

Why are there two density figures for every phrase?

Because the phrase and the words it is made of are two different things to divide by. Density is the occurrences divided by the words in the text; the share of words multiplies each occurrence by the phrase length first, so a two-word phrase counted twenty times in a thousand words is 2% dense and accounts for 4% of the words. Both are honest, and a tool that reports one of them without saying which is the reason two density checkers can report 2% and 4% for the same page and both be right.

Is keyword density still a ranking factor?

No. Google has said in public that there is no ideal keyword density, and its spam policies describe keyword stuffing as a quality problem - text that repeats words to manipulate rankings - rather than a number to stay under. A page that repeats a phrase twenty times to reach a target is more likely to be hurt by the way it reads than by any threshold, and the phrase that appears three times in the right places beats it. Treat this figure as an editing instrument rather than a score to hit.

Does it count my keyword in its other forms?

No, and that is deliberate. Nothing here is stemmed: `run` does not match `running`, `page` does not match `pages`, and a plural is a different word from its singular. Stemming is a dictionary problem - English settles it word by word - and a tool that claims to do it without a dictionary is guessing. What the page offers instead is the loose count: the number of sentences holding every word of your keyword, in any order. A zero density with a loose count of three is a page that discusses your keyword in other words, and the warning above the tables says so.

My keyword is all over the page and the density is still zero. Why?

Four usual reasons, in order of likelihood. The text uses a different form of the word, and nothing here is stemmed. The words of the phrase are in another order, which the loose count catches and the exact count cannot. The phrase straddles a full stop, and a phrase never crosses a sentence or a paragraph boundary here. Or the keyword is simply not in the box - the page you pasted is not the page you think it is. The nine checks name which of those it is instead of leaving you to guess.

What is the shortest text this page will count?

A text has to hold at least as many words as the phrase is long, with no full stop between them, before any phrase exists - and while the common words are being left out, a phrase also has to start and end with a word from outside that list. A three-word phrase in a two-word text, or in a text where every run of three words begins with `the`, produces an empty table; rather than showing one, the page says which rule emptied it and what would fill it. A box holding only punctuation, symbols or emoji holds no words at all, and says that instead.

Is my text uploaded, and is it kept?

No. The whole analysis follows a fixed rule applied to the string in the box, so it runs in your browser and nothing leaves the tab: there is no upload button because there is no upload, and no endpoint behind the page that could accept a draft even if something tried to send one. That matters more here than on most pages, because the text people paste into a density checker is usually an unpublished draft or somebody else’s page - and a competitor’s copy is not something anybody wants to hand to a server.

Assumptions and sources

  • No search engine publishes a preferred keyword density; the 0.5% to 2.5% band is a readability convention, not a ranking rule.
  • Words, sentences, the stop-word list and the phrase rules are fixed, and nothing is stemmed: `run` and `running` stay different words.
  • The 60 and 155 character limits are the usual search-result lengths; the analysis runs in your browser and the text is never uploaded.

Last reviewed 2026-09-17. Runs locally on your device; keep backups; no financial advice applies. Read the full disclaimer.

Where a figure on this page comes from an official agency — HUD, IRS, FICO or a state body — the site keeps a dated snapshot of the source page in its sources library, and a scheduled job re-checks that snapshot, so the number can be traced back to the document it came from.