Keyword Density Checker
Word and phrase frequency with density % for any text. Runs in your browser.
About this keyword density checker
This keyword density checker counts how often each word and phrase appears in your text and shows it as a percentage of the total words. Paste a draft or a page's HTML and you get 1-, 2- and 3-word phrase tables, a density figure for your target keyword and a check of where that keyword appears.
It's for writers, editors and SEO people who want a quick read on repetition before publishing. Say your 800-word post uses "cold brew" 30 times. That is 3.75%, and it probably reads as forced. The table makes that obvious in seconds.
Everything runs in your browser. Your draft is never uploaded, so unpublished client work and embargoed posts stay on your machine.
Features
1-, 2- and 3-word phrases
Switch between single words, two-word and three-word phrases. Each table shows the count and the density, and you can sort by phrase, count or density.
Phrases that respect punctuation
A phrase never runs across a full stop, comma, colon or line break. "Red, blue" is not counted as the phrase "red blue", so the 2- and 3-word tables only show real phrases.
Target keyword check
Type the phrase you want to rank for. You see how many times it appears, its density and whether it shows up in the first 100 words.
Paste HTML, get the visible text
Paste page source and the tool detects it, drops scripts, styles and tags, and counts only the words a reader sees. It also tells you whether the keyword is in the title tag, meta description, H1, H2 or H3 headings and image alt text.
Stop-word filter
Hide about 220 common English words such as the, and and of. With the filter on, phrases that start or end with a stop word are skipped, so "of the" never tops the list. Total words still include every word.
Copy or export
Copy the current table as tab-separated text for a spreadsheet, or download a CSV with all three tables at once.
How to use the keyword density checker
- 1Paste your text or a page's HTML.
- 2Enter a target keyword and choose stop word and minimum count options.
- 3Sort the 1, 2 and 3-word tables, then copy the list or download a CSV.
When to use it
Final check before publishing
Paste the draft, look at the top ten words and make sure your main topic leads and nothing odd is repeated. Then check the length and reading time if you write to a word budget.
Auditing a competitor page
Open the page, view the source with Ctrl+U, copy it and paste it here. You get the visible text's phrase list plus the keyword placement in the title and headings.
Comparing two versions
Check the density of the old and new draft, then use a side-by-side text comparison to see exactly which sentences changed.
How is keyword density calculated?
Keyword density is the number of times a word or phrase appears, divided by the total number of words, times 100. If "cold brew" appears 9 times in a 185-word text, its density is 9 ÷ 185 × 100 = 4.86%.
Some tools multiply by the number of words in the phrase, which roughly doubles the figure for a 2-word keyword. This tool does not. It counts each occurrence once, so the numbers in the 1-, 2- and 3-word tables can be compared directly. The total word count always includes stop words, even when they are hidden from the table.
Is there an ideal keyword density for SEO?
No. Google has never published a target percentage. Its spam policies list keyword stuffing as a violation, but they describe it as repeating words so often that the text reads unnaturally, not as crossing a number.
Treat density as a repetition alarm, not a goal. If your main keyword is above about 3%, read the text out loud. If it sounds forced, swap some uses for synonyms, pronouns or related terms. If your keyword is missing from the first 100 words, the title and the H1, that is usually a bigger problem than its exact percentage.
What counts as a word here?
The rules are simple and predictable, so you can trust the counts.
- A word is a run of letters or digits in any alphabet. Accented letters count normally.
- Apostrophes and hyphens inside a word keep it whole: don't, e-commerce and ready-to-drink are one word each.
- Curly and straight apostrophes are treated the same, so don’t and don't are counted together.
- Capital letters are ignored. Cold Brew and cold brew are one phrase.
- Languages written without spaces, such as Chinese and Japanese, are not split into words, so counts for them are not meaningful.
Why use Mavros
| Mavros | Typical upload sites | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your text goes | Stays in your browser | Sent to a server, sometimes after a sign-up |
| Formula | Shown under the table: count ÷ total words × 100 | Often unstated, and it varies between sites |
| Phrases across punctuation | Never counted | Often counted as phrases |
| Pasted HTML | Visible text only, plus title, H1 and alt text checks | Tags counted as words, or HTML rejected |
| Ideal density score | None, because no search engine publishes one | A fixed green band presented as a rule |
Tips
- Set the minimum count to 1 for short texts. The default of 2 hides phrases that appear only once.
- Turn the stop-word filter off when you check a question keyword like "how to make cold brew", since "how" and "to" are stop words.
- Paste full HTML rather than copying from the browser window. You get the title and heading checks, and navigation menus are easy to spot in the table.
- Once the body text is right, write the title tag and meta description around the same main phrase.
Questions
What is keyword density?
Keyword density is how often a word or phrase appears in a text, as a percentage of all its words. A phrase used 5 times in 500 words has a density of 1%.
What is a good keyword density?
There is no official good number. Google publishes no target, and pages rank with a wide range of densities. Write naturally, and if your main keyword passes about 3%, reread the text for forced repetition.
How do I check keyword density on a web page?
Open the page, press Ctrl+U (Cmd+Option+U on a Mac) to view the source, copy it and paste it here. The tool strips the HTML, counts the visible text and checks the title, meta description and headings for your keyword.
Does keyword density still matter for SEO?
Not as a ranking formula. Search engines understand topics and synonyms, so hitting a percentage does nothing on its own. It is still useful as a check that your topic is clear and that you have not repeated a phrase so often it reads badly.
Why are words like "the" and "and" missing from the table?
The stop-word filter hides them because they top every text and say nothing about the topic. Untick Hide stop words to see them. They are always included in the total word count.
Why does my 2-word phrase count differ from another tool?
This tool never joins words across punctuation, and it skips phrases that start or end with a stop word when the filter is on. Other tools may count across sentence breaks or keep every pair, which gives higher numbers.
Is my text uploaded or saved?
No. The analysis runs entirely in your browser and nothing is sent to a server. Close the tab and the text is gone.