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Keyword Density Checker

Analyze keyword frequency and density in your copy, with repeated-word and phrase tables, stop-word filtering, and JSON or CSV export.

  • Free public tool
  • No sign-up for this tool
  • Processing clearly labeled
  • Instant results

Content last reviewed

Paste a blog draft, landing page, product description, or webpage copy.

Paste content to start the review

The checker will calculate word count, reading time, focus keyword density, repeated words, two-word phrases, three-word phrases, and practical overuse signals.

Quick Start

  1. Paste your content

    Drop in the article, landing page, or product copy you want to review.

  2. Set the keywords

    Add an optional focus phrase and comma-separated secondary keywords, and choose whether stop words appear in the tables.

  3. Analyze and review

    Click Analyze content to see counts, densities, repeated words and phrases, and guidance — then copy JSON or CSV if you need a record.

Examples

A focus phrase in a short draft

A 120-word draft where the phrase cold brew appears four times.

Input

Focus keyword: cold brew · Content: a 120-word product description mentioning the phrase four times

Output

cold brew — 4 occurrence(s) · 3.3% density · status High: usage is high, check whether repeated mentions still sound natural

Hyphenated variants count together

Normalization treats hyphens as spaces, so a focus phrase matches its hyphenated form too.

Input

Focus keyword: cold brew · Content includes both "cold brew" and "cold-brew"

Output

Both spellings are counted as the same two-word phrase in the total

About the Keyword Density Checker

Repetition is hard to hear in your own writing. A phrase that felt natural in every paragraph reads as keyword stuffing to a visitor — and thin coverage of the topic you meant to target is just as invisible from the inside. This checker measures both: paste your draft, name your focus phrase, and get exact counts, density percentages, and tables of the words and multi-word phrases your text leans on most.

The analysis starts with the basic shape of the text — word, character, sentence, and paragraph counts, unique words, and an estimated reading time — then examines keyword usage. The focus keyword is matched as an exact phrase (multi-word phrases work), counted, and expressed as a percentage of total words with a plain-language status: not found, low, natural, high, or possibly overused. Secondary keywords, entered comma-separated, each get the same treatment. Below that, three tables show the top repeated single words, two-word phrases, and three-word phrases, with common stop words filtered out by default so the tables surface meaningful terms rather than the and of.

How to Use Keyword Density Checker

  1. Paste your draft into the Page or article content box — an article, landing page, product description, or any copy you are reviewing.

  2. Optionally enter a Focus keyword or phrase (multi-word phrases like keyword density checker are matched exactly) and Secondary keywords, separated by commas.

  3. Decide whether to enable Include stop words in repeated-word tables — off by default, which keeps words like the and to out of the tables.

  4. Click Analyze content. The results show summary statistics, the focus and secondary keyword cards with density and status, and three tables of repeated words, two-word phrases, and three-word phrases.

  5. Revise the text where the guidance flags high or overused terms, then paste the new version and analyze again.

  6. Use Copy JSON for a structured summary or Copy CSV for the keyword table when you want a record for editorial review.

Key Features

  • Exact phrase matching

    Focus and secondary keywords are counted as exact phrases after normalization, so multi-word terms are measured correctly.

  • Density with plain-language status

    Each keyword shows count, percentage, and a banded status — not found, low, natural (0.5–2.5%), high (2.5–4%), or possibly overused (over 4%).

  • Repeated word and phrase tables

    Top 20 single words plus the top two-word and three-word phrases that appear more than once, revealing the patterns your text leans on.

  • Stop-word filtering

    Common function words are excluded from the tables by default and can be included with one switch.

  • Writing statistics

    Word, character, sentence, and paragraph counts, unique words, and an estimated reading time at about 220 words per minute.

  • JSON and CSV export

    Copy a structured summary or a keyword,count,density table for editorial records.

When to Use Keyword Density Checker

  • Pre-publish review

    Check that a blog draft uses its focus phrase naturally — present, but not in every paragraph.

  • Landing page audits

    Spot phrases repeated enough to read as pushy or spammy in conversion copy.

  • Primary vs. secondary coverage

    Compare how a main keyword and its variants are distributed across a long article.

  • Finding crutch words

    Use the repeated-word table to catch the words you overuse without noticing.

  • Editorial records

    Export the JSON or CSV summary as a snapshot for content review workflows.

How It Works

When you click Analyze, the text is normalized and tokenized: lowercased, accents and apostrophes stripped, hyphens, underscores, and slashes treated as spaces, and remaining punctuation removed. This is why cold brew and cold-brew count as the same phrase, and why matching is case-insensitive.

Keyword counting slides the focus phrase across the token stream looking for exact consecutive matches, then divides by total words for the density percentage. The status bands are: not found (0), low (below 0.5%), natural (0.5–2.5%), high (2.5–4%), and possibly overused (above 4%) — presented as review guidance, not targets.

The tables count individual words (skipping stop words unless you include them) and two- and three-word sequences, keeping phrases that occur more than once. With stop words excluded, a phrase must still contain enough meaningful words to be listed, which keeps fragments like "of the" out of the phrase tables. Analysis runs when you click the button, so you can edit the input freely without the results shifting under you.

Supported Formats and Options

Formats

  • Plain text input

    Pasted article or page copy. Paste rendered text rather than raw HTML — markup tags would be counted as words after normalization.

  • JSON and CSV export

    A structured summary (counts, keyword results, top words) as JSON, or a keyword,count,density table as CSV — both copied to the clipboard.

Options

  • Focus keyword or phrase

    One primary term, matched as an exact phrase. Optional — without it you still get statistics and tables.

  • Secondary keywords

    Comma-separated additional terms, each analyzed like the focus keyword.

  • Include stop words

    Switches common function words back into the repeated-word and phrase tables. Off by default.

  • Analyze / Clear

    Analysis runs on click rather than live; Clear resets the text, keywords, and results.

Common Errors and Troubleshooting

Common errors

  • Density looks alarmingly high on a short text

    Percentages are unstable on small samples — three mentions in fifty words is 6%. The tool warns below 25 words; judge short snippets by reading them, not by the percentage.

  • Focus keyword reported as not found

    Matching is exact after normalization: word order matters and word forms are not stemmed, so brewing cold does not match cold brew, and neither does brews. Check for a typo or try the singular form.

  • The tables miss common words you expected

    Stop words are filtered out by default, and single-character tokens are skipped. Flip the include-stop-words switch to see the unfiltered pattern.

Troubleshooting guide

Making sense of unexpected results

  • Counts differ from your word processor's find function: normalization strips punctuation and treats hyphens as spaces, so the tool may count matches your editor's literal search misses (or vice versa).
  • A phrase you repeat is not in the phrase table: tables only list phrases occurring more than once after normalization, and phrases made mostly of stop words are filtered — enable stop words to check.
  • Results did not change after editing: analysis runs on click, not live. Press Analyze content again after edits.
  • Reading time differs from other tools: this checker assumes about 220 words per minute; tools using 200 wpm will report slightly longer times for the same text.

Limitations and Important Notes

Matching is exact-phrase after normalization — there is no stemming or synonym detection, so brew, brews, and brewing are three different words to the counter. The status bands are general editorial guidance, not thresholds any search engine publishes; no density percentage is a ranking target. The checker analyzes pasted text only — it does not fetch URLs, so run it on the copy itself rather than a link. Very short texts produce unstable percentages, which the built-in warning flags below 25 words.

Privacy and Data Processing

Your draft is analyzed entirely in your browser when you click Analyze — the text, keywords, and results are never uploaded or stored by the tool, which makes it safe to review unpublished or client content.

Tips and Best Practices

Practical tips

  • Treat the density bands as review guidance, not targets — read any flagged section aloud before editing.

  • Analyze complete drafts rather than fragments; percentages are unstable on short samples.

  • Use the phrase tables to find repetitive wording patterns, not just keyword counts.

  • Cover the topic with related terms and synonyms where they help the reader, not to hit a number.

  • Re-run the analysis after editing — results update only when you click Analyze.

Best practices

Using density as an editor, not a formula

Run the analysis after writing, not during. Drafting against a live percentage produces copy shaped by a number; drafting for the reader and then checking produces copy that is merely verified. When a keyword lands in the high or overused band, the fix is usually structural — a heading that repeats the title, a boilerplate sentence pasted into several sections — rather than word-by-word substitution.

Read the tables as a mirror of your habits. The two- and three-word phrase tables catch the constructions you reach for unconsciously; pruning those improves the writing whether or not any search engine is watching.

And keep the goal in order: search engines reward pages that treat a topic thoroughly and readably. Density checking helps you notice when wording gets in the way of that — it is quality control for prose, not an optimization lever. Pair it with the Word Counter for length targets and the SERP Snippet Preview for how the page will present in results.

Technical Details

Tokenization lowercases, applies Unicode NFKD normalization to strip accents, removes apostrophes, converts hyphens, underscores, and slashes to spaces, and drops remaining punctuation (Unicode-aware, so non-Latin letters survive). Phrase counting is a sliding-window exact match over the token array. N-gram tables use two- and three-token windows, keeping entries with count above one; with stop words excluded, a phrase must contain at least half meaningful words. Reading time is total words divided by 220, rounded up with a one-minute floor. Analysis is memoized on the submitted snapshot and runs wholly client-side.

Comparison

The density guidance bands

DensityStatusSuggested reading
0%Not foundThe keyword never appears
below 0.5%LowPresent but rare — add only where it helps readers
0.5–2.5%NaturalTypical range for most articles
2.5–4%HighReview manually — may still be fine
above 4%Possibly overusedLikely reads as repetitive

The bands are editorial guidance for review, not published ranking thresholds — always confirm by reading the flagged text.

Who Is This For?

Content writers and editors doing a pre-publish pass, SEO teams reviewing keyword coverage across drafts, freelancers documenting keyword usage for clients via the exports, and anyone who suspects a piece of copy repeats itself but wants numbers instead of a hunch. It is a review instrument — most useful to people who will read the flagged passages and judge them, rather than chase a percentage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there an ideal keyword density for ranking?

No — search engines publish no such number, and modern ranking is not driven by keyword frequency. The bands here (natural around 0.5–2.5%) describe what typically reads well, which is the thing worth optimizing.

Can I check multi-word phrases?

Yes — the focus and secondary fields accept phrases, matched as exact consecutive words after normalization. "keyword density checker" is counted only where all three words appear in order.

Why are words like the and to missing from the tables?

A built-in stop-word list keeps common function words out so the tables surface meaningful terms. Flip the include-stop-words switch when you want the complete pattern.

Does it count word variations like plurals?

No — there is no stemming, so brew and brews are separate entries. Check important variants as secondary keywords if you need each measured.

Why did nothing update after I edited the text?

The analysis runs when you click Analyze content, not live — deliberate, so results stay stable while you edit. Click the button again after changes.

What do the exports contain?

Copy JSON produces a structured summary — the statistics, focus and secondary keyword results, and top ten words with densities. Copy CSV produces a keyword,count,density table of the top repeated words. Both go to your clipboard.

Is my unpublished draft safe to paste here?

Yes — the analysis runs locally in your browser and the text is never transmitted or saved. Closing the page discards everything.

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