Free Keyword Density Checker — Count Words & Phrases

What it checks

What does a keyword density checker do?

A keyword density checker counts how often each word and phrase appears in a piece of text, and shows each count as a share of the total number of words. That share is the keyword density: a phrase used 5 times in 500 words has a density of 1%.

The counts are a quick way to see what a page actually talks about. If the phrase you want to rank for barely appears, or a different phrase dominates, the text may not be about what you think it is. If one phrase appears in every sentence, the page reads as written for search engines rather than people.

This checker splits the text into words, leaves common stop words such as “the” and “and” out of the phrase tables, and lists the 20 most used phrases of one, two and three words. It runs in your browser: the text is never sent anywhere.

In the result

Clear answers,
with the reason shown.

Phrases

The top 1-, 2- and 3-word phrases.

Each table lists up to 20 phrases with their count and their density as a share of all words in the text.

Stop words left out
Words, unique words and reading time

Your keyword

How often the target phrase appears.

Type a target keyword to see its exact count and density, then copy every table as CSV into a sheet.

Target keyword count
Copy as CSV

Worked example

A short service paragraph, counted.

The fictional northwind-plumbing.example drafted a paragraph for its boiler service page and entered boiler service as the target keyword. The paragraph:

A boiler service checks that your boiler is safe and working well. During a boiler service our engineer checks the gas pressure, the flue and the seals, then cleans the parts that wear. Book a boiler service once a year, before the heating season. A yearly service keeps the warranty valid and catches small faults before they become a breakdown.

Run through the checker, it comes out like this:

60 words · 39 unique · reading 1 min

Target boiler service: 3 times · 5%

1-word phrases
Phrase	Count	Density %
boiler	4	6.7
service	4	6.7
checks	2	3.3
become	1	1.7
book	1	1.7
breakdown	1	1.7
catches	1	1.7
cleans	1	1.7
during	1	1.7
engineer	1	1.7
faults	1	1.7
flue	1	1.7
gas	1	1.7
heating	1	1.7
keeps	1	1.7
parts	1	1.7
pressure	1	1.7
safe	1	1.7
seals	1	1.7
season	1	1.7

2-word phrases
Phrase	Count	Density %
boiler service	3	5
become breakdown	1	1.7
boiler safe	1	1.7
book boiler	1	1.7
catches small	1	1.7
checks boiler	1	1.7
checks gas	1	1.7
cleans parts	1	1.7
during boiler	1	1.7
engineer checks	1	1.7
faults become	1	1.7
flue seals	1	1.7
gas pressure	1	1.7
heating season	1	1.7
keeps warranty	1	1.7
parts wear	1	1.7
pressure flue	1	1.7
safe working	1	1.7
seals cleans	1	1.7
season yearly	1	1.7

3-word phrases
Phrase	Count	Density %
boiler safe working	1	1.7
boiler service checks	1	1.7
boiler service engineer	1	1.7
boiler service year	1	1.7
book boiler service	1	1.7
catches small faults	1	1.7
checks boiler safe	1	1.7
checks gas pressure	1	1.7
cleans parts wear	1	1.7
during boiler service	1	1.7
engineer checks gas	1	1.7
faults become breakdown	1	1.7
flue seals cleans	1	1.7
gas pressure flue	1	1.7
heating season yearly	1	1.7
keeps warranty valid	1	1.7
parts wear book	1	1.7
pressure flue seals	1	1.7
safe working well	1	1.7
seals cleans parts	1	1.7

Example result for a fictional plumbing business (target keyword: boiler service). It is produced by the checker's own code from the paragraph above, at build time; paste your own text to check it.

“Boiler” and “service” top the one-word table, and “boiler service” tops the two-word table, so the paragraph is plainly about the phrase it targets. Used three times in about sixty words, the target already has a high density for so short a text; adding it to every sentence would make the copy read as written for search engines. The better next step is the words a reader needs to decide, such as what a service costs and how long it takes. Our on-page SEO checklist covers where the main keyword belongs on a page: the title, the H1 and the first paragraph.

Reading the result

How do you read the keyword density checker result?

The header: The total number of words, how many of them are different, and the reading time at about 200 words a minute.
The target keyword: When you type one, the exact number of times the phrase appears and its density: the count divided by the total number of words.
The three tables: The 20 most used phrases of one, two and three words, with stop words such as “the” and “and” left out. Density is the count divided by all words in the text, stop words included.
Copy as CSV: Copies all three tables with a phrase,count,density header, ready to paste into a spreadsheet.

Common errors

Where does keyword density mislead, and what do you do instead?

Chasing a target density

There is no density Google rewards. Use the keyword where it reads naturally, especially in the title, the H1 and the opening, and stop there.

Keyword stuffing

The same phrase in every sentence, or lists of keywords and towns, reads badly and is named as spam in Google’s spam policies. Cut repeats until the text reads well aloud.

The target barely appears

If the phrase you want to rank for is missing from the tables, the page may not be about it. Say it plainly in the title, the H1 and the first paragraph.

A different phrase dominates

When another phrase leads the tables, the page may answer a different search. Check which keyword the page should target, or split it into two pages.

Checking only the body

Paste the title, headings and body together if you want to see what the whole page repeats; the checker counts only the text you paste.

When to check

When should you check keyword density?

Check it when you write or rewrite a page, to see what the text really repeats before you publish.

Before publishing a new page: Confirm the target phrase appears where it should and that no phrase is repeated far more than the rest.
When rewriting an old page: Paste the old and new versions to see whether the rewrite still covers the phrases the page ranked for.
When a page ranks for the wrong search: The phrases that lead the tables are often the ones Google matched the page to.
When reviewing a writer’s draft: A quick count shows keyword stuffing, or a draft that drifted away from the brief, before you read it line by line.
When comparing with a competitor: Paste the text of a page that ranks to see which phrases it covers that yours does not.

Go further

Guides for this check.

More free checkers

Other quick checks.

Questions

About the keyword density checker.

What is keyword density?

The number of times a word or phrase appears in a text, divided by the total number of words, as a percentage. A phrase used 5 times in 500 words has a keyword density of 1%.

Is there an ideal keyword density?

No. Google has no target density and does not reward hitting one. Write naturally for the reader and use the words they search for where they fit. Repeating a keyword to raise its density is keyword stuffing, which Google’s spam policies name as spam.

Why are stop words left out?

Words such as “the”, “and” and “of” are the most common words in almost any English text, so they would fill the top of every table without saying anything about the topic. They still count towards the total number of words, and the target keyword is counted with them in place.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. The counting runs in your browser, so the text never leaves the page and no account is needed. You can check this in your browser’s network tab: pressing the button makes no request.

How much text can I check?

Up to 50,000 characters at a time, which is roughly 8,000 words. Longer text is cut at that point, so check a long page in parts.

Keyword density checker: which words your text repeats.