Keyword Density Checker
Compare with competitors, leave out words
| Focus keyword | Uses | Density | Title | H1 | Meta | First 100 words | Headings | URL |
|---|
Next to your competitors (same rules, main content only)
| Phrase | Count | Density |
|---|
Enter a URL or paste your text. The checker lists the phrases used most, with each one's count and density: times used divided by total words, times 100.
Example: a phrase used 15 times in 1,000 words has a density of 1.5%.
Focus keywords and competitors: add keywords to see where each appears, and up to 2 ranking pages to see their numbers next to yours.
Your text stays in your browser. Pasted text is counted on your device. Only a URL check goes through our server, to fetch the page.
We ran this checker on 25 articles in Google's top 10 for four searches. None used the exact search phrase at more than 0.22% density, and 14 never used it at all.
Exact wording is optional: all 7 articles ranking for "what is a backlink" used the plural, "what are backlinks", in their title.
Checked 2 November 2026. Method.
How the checker counts
For a URL it reads the HTML the server sends and counts the main content: the <main> element if the page has one, else <article>, else the body. Menus, footer, sidebars, forms and scripts are left out, and so is the site header (an article's own header, with its H1, is kept). Pasted text is counted as it is, and pasted HTML gets the same treatment as a URL.
A phrase is 1 to 4 words in a row. It never runs across a full stop or from a heading into the paragraph below it. With Hide stop words on, words like "the" and "of" are hidden on their own and no phrase starts or ends with one. Numbers on their own, phrases used once and any words you choose to leave out (your brand name, for example) are left out of the table but still count toward the total. The CSV has every phrase used twice or more.
What is a good keyword density?
There is no target. Google does not publish one, and its spam policies list "repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural" as keyword stuffing. Here is what ranking pages did on 2 November 2026, counted with this tool:
| Search | Articles | Exact phrase density (median) | Range | Never used it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| what is a backlink | 7 | 0% | 0% | 7 of 7 |
| how to build backlinks | 4 | 0% | 0% | 4 of 4 |
| cold email templates | 7 | 0.06% | 0 to 0.22% | 1 of 7 |
| link building strategies | 7 | 0.08% | 0 to 0.16% | 2 of 7 |
| keyword density | 9 | 1.84% | 0.89 to 3.97% | 0 of 9 |
"Keyword density" is the outlier because the phrase is the subject: a page about it cannot avoid the term. On the other four, the most repeated two word phrase on a page had a median density of 0.52%. If your focus keyword is well above the phrases around it, read the page aloud. If it sounds forced, use other wordings.
Where to use your keyword
- Title and H1. On the four searches other than "keyword density", 8 of the 25 ranking articles had the exact search phrase in the title and 9 in the H1. Most of the rest used a variant.
- The first paragraph. Say what the page is about early. 8 of the 25 used the exact phrase in the first 100 words.
- A few headings. Where it reads naturally, not in every one.
- Close variants everywhere else. Plurals, synonyms and question forms ("what are backlinks") count as the same topic to a reader.
To see what is normal for your keyword, add the top 2 ranking pages under "Compare with competitors". Then check the rest of the page with the on-page SEO checker.
The words get a page understood. Links and mentions get it chosen.
MentionAgent finds the posts in your niche that already link out to sites like yours, writes to the author, and asks for a mention. Check each email first, or let it send on autopilot.
Start Getting Mentioned On AutopilotFrequently asked questions
What does keyword density mean?
How often a word or phrase appears on a page, as a share of all the words on it. A phrase used 15 times in 1,000 words has a density of 1.5%.
What is a good keyword density?
There is no target number. Google does not publish one. On 2 November 2026 we counted 25 articles in Google's top 10 for four searches, and none used the exact search phrase at more than 0.22%. Write for the reader, and put the phrase or a close variant in the title, the H1 and the first paragraph.
Does keyword density still matter?
Not as a number to hit. Google's spam policies name keyword stuffing, repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural, as spam. A density check is useful for catching that, and for seeing which phrases a page is really about.
How is keyword density calculated?
Times the phrase appears, divided by the total number of words, times 100. A two word phrase used 5 times in 1,000 words has a density of 0.5%.
Why are my numbers different from another checker?
Checkers count different text. This one counts the main content only, without menus, the site header, footer, sidebars, scripts or forms, and a phrase never runs across a heading and the paragraph under it. A tool that counts the whole page HTML will show more words and lower densities.
Method
On 2 November 2026 we took Google's US top 10 (via Serper) for "what is a backlink", "how to build backlinks", "cold email templates", "link building strategies" and "keyword density". We dropped forums, videos, social posts and pages under 300 words, and fetched each remaining article's HTML. 34 pages loaded. Each was counted with this checker's own code: main content only, exact phrase in any letter case, density as occurrences divided by total words.