Keyword Density & Frequency Analyzer

What this tool does

Paste an article, optionally enter a keyword or phrase, and the tool returns the total word count, how many times your keyword appears, the keyword’s density as a percentage, and the ten most frequent words (ignoring common stop words and very short words).

This tool sends your text to the server for counting, unlike the formatters which run in the browser. Don’t paste confidential drafts.

How the numbers are worked out

• Word count. The text is lowercased, punctuation is replaced with spaces, and what’s left is split on whitespace.
• Keyword count. The tool counts every occurrence of your keyword text in the lowercased article. This is a plain text match, so a search for cat also counts the cat inside category and concatenate. For a short keyword, make it more specific, or add spaces around it.
• Density is the keyword count divided by the total word count, as a percentage. A three-word phrase appearing once counts as one occurrence against all words, so phrases will show lower densities than single words.
• Top words are single words only, longer than two letters, excluding a list of common stop words.

Is density worth watching?

Not much. Keyword density is not a ranking factor, and there is no ideal percentage to aim for. Search engines look at meaning and topic coverage, not repetition. Use this tool for the opposite purpose: as a check that you haven’t repeated a phrase so often that the writing reads badly, or to see which words dominate a draft.

A better test is to read the page aloud. If the keyword makes you wince, cut it.