Free Online Keyword Density Checker
Analyze keyword density across 1-gram, 2-gram, and 3-gram phrases
Paste text above to see keyword density analysis.
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Why use Keyword Density Checker
- Color-coded density bars make over-optimization visible at a glance -- green under 2%, amber 2-3%, red above 3%.
- Bigram and trigram analysis catches repetitive multi-word phrases that single-word counters miss entirely.
- Stop-word filter focuses results on content-bearing keywords rather than grammatical noise.
- CSV export lets you build audit spreadsheets for multi-page sites.
- Real-time analysis means you can revise and re-check without re-pasting.
- Top-50 ranking shows the most frequent terms first, so outliers are immediately visible.
How it works
The tool lowercases input and tokenizes it into words. It builds frequency maps for unigrams, bigrams, and trigrams. For each n-gram, the count is divided by the total possible positions for that gram size to produce a density percentage. With stop words enabled, any n-gram containing a common English word is excluded. Results are sorted by frequency, with the top 50 displayed alongside color-coded bars.
About this tool
Paste your article and see which words and phrases appear most often -- and whether any cross from natural usage into keyword-stuffing territory. The tool breaks text into single words, two-word phrases, and three-word phrases, ranks them by frequency, and calculates a density percentage for each. The accepted guideline is 1-3% for a primary keyword. Above 3%, search engines may flag the page for over-optimization, producing ranking penalties instead of boosts. Color-coded bars make outliers visible: green under 2%, amber 2-3%, red above 3%. A stop-words filter removes common words (the, and, is, in) so you focus on content-bearing keywords. Results export as CSV for multi-page audit spreadsheets. Bigram analysis is where the tool earns its keep. Single-word density is easy to spot by feel, but phrases like "project management" or "running shoes" are harder to gauge manually -- and those multi-word phrases are exactly what matters for SEO targeting.
How to use Keyword Density Checker
- Paste your content. Drop the article or page copy into the text area.
- Pick an n-gram size. Switch between Single Words, Two-Word Phrases, and Three-Word Phrases using the tabs.
- Toggle stop words. Check Exclude stop words to hide common words and focus on meaningful keywords.
- Read the density bars. Green = natural, amber = moderate (2-3%), red = potential stuffing (above 3%).
- Export. Click Copy or Export CSV to save results for a report or spreadsheet.
Use cases
- Checking every client blog post before publishing to verify the target keyword stays between 1% and 2.5%.
- Auditing a 50-page site by exporting CSV reports per page and building a keyword density spreadsheet.
- Verifying that a revised article reduced a flagged keyword from 4.2% down to 1.8% before republishing.
Frequently Asked Questions
The percentage of times a word or phrase appears relative to total words. Five occurrences in a 500-word article = 1%.
1-3% for a primary keyword. Above 3% risks triggering over-optimization penalties. Natural-sounding content that serves the reader should always come first -- the density number is a guardrail, not a target.
N-grams are contiguous word sequences: 1-gram (single word), 2-gram (two-word phrase), 3-gram (three-word phrase). Analyzing them reveals repetitive multi-word keyword phrases that single-word counters miss entirely. Those multi-word phrases are often the exact terms you are trying to rank for.
Common words like 'the', 'and', 'is', and 'in' that carry little meaning on their own. Excluding them focuses the results on content-bearing keywords. Keeping them gives a complete picture. Toggle the filter based on what you need to see.
The phrase count is divided by the total number of possible positions for that phrase size. In a 100-word text there are 99 bigram positions and 98 trigram positions. This gives a more accurate percentage than dividing by total words.
If your target keyword barely appears, search engines may not associate the page with that topic strongly enough. Include it naturally in the title, first paragraph, headings, and body. A minimum of 0.5% is a reasonable baseline.
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