What is keyword density?
Keyword density is how often a word or phrase appears compared with the total number of words on the page:
Density = (times the keyword appears ÷ total words) × 100If “running shoes” appears 8 times in a 1,000-word article, its density is 0.8%. We count phrases on whole-word boundaries, ignoring case, and never across sentence endings. So “…best shoes. Running…” doesn’t count as the phrase “shoes running”.
Is there an ideal keyword density?
No. Google has said many times that there’s no magic percentage. Modern search engines understand topics, synonyms and context. They don’t count words. Keyword density is still a very useful diagnostic:
- Under ~0.5%: your main topic might not be clear. Is the keyword in the title, H1 and opening paragraph?
- 0.5–2.5%: a natural range for most well-written content.
- Over ~3%: it probably reads as repetitive, and heavy repetition can be seen as keyword stuffing, which Google’s spam policies penalise.
Placement beats repetition
Where your keyword appears matters far more than how often. Paste the page’s full HTML source and we’ll check the places that carry the most weight:
- Title tag: the strongest on-page relevance signal and the blue link in search results.
- H1 heading: confirms the page topic to readers and search engines.
- First 100 words: tells the reader straight away that they’re in the right place.
- Subheadings (H2–H3): support related subtopics and featured-snippet chances.
- Meta description: not a ranking factor, but matching words are bolded in Google results.
Use the phrase tabs to find content gaps. If your 2- and 3-word phrases are dominated by filler like “click here” or your brand name, you’re missing the descriptive phrases people actually search for. Add related terms, synonyms and questions to cover the topic fully.
How to check a live web page
For privacy, this tool never fetches URLs. Everything stays in your browser. To analyse a live page: open it, press Ctrl+U (or ⌘+Option+U on Mac) to view the source, select all, copy, and paste it above. We automatically strip scripts, styles and navigation and analyse only the visible content.