Keyword Density Analyzer

Paste your article to see term, bigram and trigram frequency, with over-optimisation warnings and colour-coded charts.

Top Terms

Top Bigrams

Top Trigrams

Warnings

Keyword Density in Modern SEO

Keyword density — the ratio of a target term's occurrences to total words — was a primitive ranking factor in early Google. It is no longer a direct ranking signal, but it still matters for two reasons: (1) it is a proxy for topic focus, and (2) extreme over-optimisation can trigger spam filters.

What Density Is "Right"?

DensityInterpretation
> 4%Over-optimised — likely to read as keyword stuffing
2.5%–4%High — acceptable in small doses but risky across long content
0.5%–2.5%Healthy range for a primary keyword
< 0.3%Under-represented — the page may lack topical focus

These thresholds are guidance, not rules. A 300-word landing page about "CRM software" might legitimately have 3% density because the term is the entire topic. A 3,000-word pillar guide should be closer to 0.8%.

Why Bigrams and Trigrams Matter More

Modern search understands phrases, not just words. "Running shoes" as a bigram signals a different topic than "running" and "shoes" separately. The tool surfaces your top bigrams and trigrams so you can see what topic your content is actually signalling — which is often different from what you intended.

Common Over-Optimisation Signals

  • Repetition in consecutive sentences. Natural writing doesn't do this.
  • Exact-match repetition in headers. Repeatedly writing "CRM software" as an H2 when "Choosing the Right Tool" would read better.
  • Keyword-first sentences — every paragraph starting with the target term.
  • Awkward synonyms avoided. Real writers use "tool", "platform", "solution" interchangeably. If every mention is the exact target term, it reads as SEO copy.

How to Use This Data

  1. Run the analysis on your draft.
  2. Identify the top 3–5 terms — these are what the page is currently about.
  3. Compare against your intended target keyword. If they don't match, rewrite the introduction to signal the right topic.
  4. If your target keyword has > 3% density, replace 2–3 exact matches with pronouns or synonyms.
  5. If a secondary keyword you want to rank for is missing entirely, add one H2 section on that subtopic.

What Density Cannot Tell You

  • Whether the content is good — density is orthogonal to quality.
  • Whether the page will rank — many other factors (backlinks, intent match, page experience) dominate.
  • Whether competitors are outperforming you — that requires SERP analysis.

Keyword Density FAQ

Is keyword density still a ranking factor?

Not directly. Google no longer uses raw density as a signal, but extreme over-optimisation can trigger spam filters and hurt rankings. Moderate density signals topical relevance.

What is a safe keyword density?

0.5%–2.5% is the healthy range for a primary keyword. Above 4% is a red flag; below 0.3% means the page may not be topically focused.

What is a bigram and why does it matter?

A bigram is a two-word phrase. Modern search understands phrases, not just isolated words. "Running shoes" as a bigram signals a different intent than "running" and "shoes" separately.

Do stop words count?

This tool excludes stop words from top terms but includes them in total word count. That gives a more honest density figure — most density tools over-count by including "the" and "and".