# Keyword density checker > Check keyword density and the most used one-, two- and three-word phrases in any text or live page, and see if your keyword is in the title, H1 and intro. Canonical: https://cromagnon.app/tools/keyword-density Last updated: 2026-10-27 - Category: SEO - Formats: TEXT · HTML · URL · CSV - Use it: https://cromagnon.app/tools/keyword-density (free, runs in the browser) ## What it does Keyword density is how often a word or phrase appears compared with the total number of words. This tool counts every word and every two- and three-word phrase in a text or a web page, leaves out small words such as "the" and "of", and shows what the content is really about. Add a target keyword to see how often it's used and whether it appears in the places that matter most: the title, the main heading, the first paragraph, the meta description, the address and the subheadings. ## How to use it 1. Paste your text, paste a page's HTML, or choose Live page and type the address. 2. For plain text, add the title and main heading if you have them, so their checks can run. 3. Type the keyword you want the page to be found for, or click any phrase in the table to check it. 4. Read the checks: green is fine, amber is worth a look, red needs fixing. 5. Switch between 1, 2 and 3 words to see single terms and phrases, and download the table as CSV if you want to compare pages. Tip: Use the table to check that your page is about what you think it is. If the top phrases are your topic and its natural relatives, you're in good shape; if they're navigation words or a phrase you repeated by habit, rewrite. ## Is there an ideal keyword density? No. Google has said for many years that there is no ideal percentage, and modern search engines understand synonyms, related terms and meaning, not just repeated words. A page about sourdough that also says starter, dough, crust and bake is clearly about sourdough without saying it twenty times. Density is still a useful warning light at both ends. Above about 2 to 3 percent for a phrase, text usually reads as repetitive, and a very high figure can look like keyword stuffing, which Google's spam policies name directly. Far below that, in a long article, the main topic may be mentioned so rarely that readers and search engines aren't sure what the page is for. The checks use these rough bands and say so in plain words, rather than asking you to hit an exact number. ## How the counting works - **Words**: Text is split into words with your browser's own word rules, so it works for English, Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Thai alike. Pure numbers are counted but left out of the phrase table. - **Phrases**: Two- and three-word phrases never cross the end of a sentence or punctuation such as commas, so you see real phrases, not accidental pairs. - **Stop words**: For English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch, small words are left out, and phrases may not start or end with one. Cost of living is kept; of living is not. The language is detected, and you can change it. - **Density**: Times used divided by the total number of words, as a percentage. A three-word phrase used 5 times in 1,000 words is 0.5%. - **Keyword matches**: Whole words in any case and with or without accents (cafe matches café), and the last word also as a plural ending in s or es. - **Web pages**: From HTML or a live page, the main text is taken from
or
when the page has one, and navigation, header, footer, side panels, forms and scripts are left out, so menus don't inflate the counts. ## Where the keyword should appear The title tag is the strongest on-page signal and the first thing searchers read, so the main keyword belongs there, ideally near the start, as long as the title still reads naturally. The main heading (H1) should tell readers what the page is about, and it usually uses the keyword or a close variant. The first paragraph should confirm early that the visitor is in the right place. The meta description doesn't affect ranking, but Google highlights the searched words in it, and a matching description is more likely to be shown. A short address with the main words helps a little; don't change an established address just to add them. At least one subheading that uses the keyword or a variant helps readers scanning the page. Beyond these places, write naturally and cover the topic fully. ## Using the phrase table Sort through the top phrases to see what the text emphasises. Repeated phrases you didn't intend show where to vary your wording. Missing phrases your readers would expect, such as prices, sizes, steps or comparisons, show where content is thin. Compare your page with the pages that rank for the same search by checking each, downloading the CSVs and looking at what they cover that you don't. ## Tips - **Write for the reader first**: Read the text aloud. If the keyword sounds forced, it is; use pronouns, synonyms and related terms. - **One main topic per page**: If two pages on your site have the same top phrase and target keyword, they may compete. Merge them or give each a distinct focus. - **Check variants**: Click related phrases in the table to see how often each variant appears; a natural mix is better than one exact phrase. - **Short answers are fine**: A page that answers a simple question can be short. The thin-content warning matters most for competitive topics. - **Don't hide keywords**: Text in the same colour as the background, or keyword lists in the footer, break Google's spam policies. - **Recheck after editing**: Paste the new version and compare: the top phrases should still describe the page. ## Questions ### What is a good keyword density? There isn't a single number. Roughly 0.5 to 2 percent for the main keyword is common in natural writing; above 3 percent usually reads as stuffing. ### Does keyword density affect rankings? Not directly. Search engines rank content on relevance and quality; density only warns you about overuse or a topic that's barely mentioned. ### Why is my keyword count lower than expected? Only whole words in the main text count, not the title, menus or footer, and words separated by punctuation aren't one phrase. ### Does it work in other languages? Yes. Words and phrases are counted in any language. Stop words are removed for seven languages; for others, turn that option off. ### Can it check a page behind a login? No. The server can only fetch public pages. Paste the HTML or the text instead. ### Is my text stored? No. Pasted text and HTML are analysed in your browser. A live page is fetched once by our server for the check and isn't kept. ## Related - [SERP Preview](https://cromagnon.app/tools/serp-preview) - [Word Counter](https://cromagnon.app/tools/word-counter) - [Schema Validator](https://cromagnon.app/tools/schema-validator) - [Slug Generator](https://cromagnon.app/tools/slug-generator) - [All tools](https://cromagnon.app/tools)