Keyword Count & Density Checker

How to check keyword count and density

1. Paste your text into the first box. Words, characters and unique words update as you type.
2. Add your keywords in the second box, one per line. Phrases are fine, and so is a mix of both.
3. Read the table. Each keyword shows its matches, density and coverage. Open Where each match appears to see the matches in their sentences.

What keyword density actually is

Density is the share of your text that a keyword takes up:

Density = matches ÷ total words × 100

Take the example loaded by the Load an example button. The text is 22 words. “keyword” appears 4 times, so its density is 4 ÷ 22 = 18.18%. The phrase “keyword count” appears twice, so its density is 2 ÷ 22 = 9.09%.

That second number understates things, because each match is two words. So this tool also shows coverage: matches × the words in the phrase ÷ total words. For “keyword count” that’s 4 ÷ 22 = 18.18%. Neither figure is wrong. They answer different questions, and two checkers will disagree about the same text because each picks one and doesn’t say which. Both are printed here.

Whole words, or letters anywhere

This is the setting that changes the answer most, and most checkers don’t have it.

Whole words is the default. A word ends at anything that isn’t a letter or a number, which is why “cat” is counted in “cat’s” but not in “cats”. If you want the looser count, switch to Anywhere in a word and the table updates.

Matching ignores case unless you tick Case sensitive. A phrase matches across any run of spaces or line breaks, so “keyword count” is still found when a paste has wrapped it onto two lines.

The words and phrases you used most

Open Most-used words and phrases and you get three tables: single words, two-word phrases and three-word phrases, each with how often it appears and its density. Filler words like “the”, “and” and “of” are left out, because a frequency list topped by those describes English rather than your writing. A checkbox puts them back.

Phrases never run across the end of a sentence or a blank line. “…the end. The next…” won’t produce “end the next”, which is the kind of row that fills up other tools’ tables.

The panel is closed until you open it, because counting every phrase is three more passes over your text and there’s no reason to do that while you’re still typing.

Is there an ideal keyword density?

No, and be careful with any tool that hands you a target. SEO Review Tools, which has run a density checker for years, puts it plainly: there’s no exact answer, it depends on the topic, and you should write for people. Google has said for a long time that repeating a phrase to hit a percentage doesn’t help, and keyword stuffing can hurt.

What the count is genuinely good for is spotting repetition. If one phrase appears 30 times in 800 words, you don’t need a rule to tell you it reads badly. That is a writing problem the number makes visible, and it’s worth fixing whether or not it’s an SEO problem.

Looking for the Zuhio keyword count checker?

That’s a different tool, made by Zuhio, a company that publishes a set of small business tools. FreeToolBank isn’t connected with them in any way, and this page isn’t a copy of theirs.

If you landed here looking for it, this tool does the same core job — paste text, name a keyword, get the count and the density — and adds three things that keyword checkers usually leave out:

• You choose what a match is. Whole words or letters anywhere, as a setting you can see rather than a rule you have to guess.
• You can check the count. Every match is listed in its sentence, so you can confirm the number instead of trusting it.
• The arithmetic is stated. Density and coverage side by side, with the word count they were divided by.

What this tool doesn’t do

• It doesn’t fetch a URL. Paste the text instead. Nothing you paste leaves your browser, which is only true because there’s no server involved.
• It isn’t keyword research. No search volume, no difficulty, no competitor data. It counts what’s in front of it.
• It doesn’t grade your page. No score, no traffic light, no “ideal” range, because there isn’t one.

For counting words, characters, sentences and pages, use the word counter. To tidy text pasted out of Word or a PDF before you count it, use the text cleaner.