Keyword density, and what to do about it
A density table on its own tells you nothing. This scores the page for SEO and readability against your focus keyphrase, shows every phrase from one to four words, and hands you an ordered list of the edits that would actually improve it.
Enter a URL and a focus keyphrase to get scores, checks and keyword tables.
Why most keyword density checkers are useless
Paste a URL into a typical density tool and it will confidently report that your top keywords are “home”, “contact” and “services”. It counted your navigation. It counted your footer. It counted the cookie banner.
This one reads the <main> or <article> region where a page marks one up, and falls back to the body with nav, footer and sidebars removed. It tells you which it used, so you know what the numbers describe.
The second problem is that a density percentage is not advice. Knowing a phrase appears 1.4% of the time does not tell you whether the page is any good. So the density table sits alongside two scores built the way Yoast builds them — placement of the keyphrase across the elements that matter, and a readability read from sentence length, paragraph length, passive voice and transitions — and every failing check names the edit that fixes it.
Density is a symptom. The scores are a diagnosis. The recommendation list is the prescription.
What each score measures
SEO score
Weighted checks on where your focus keyphrase appears and how the page is built.
- Keyphrase in the SEO title, and how early
- Keyphrase in the meta description
- Keyphrase in the H1
- Keyphrase in at least one subheading
- Keyphrase in the opening paragraph
- Keyphrase in the URL slug
- Density inside the 0.5–3% range
- Keyphrase in image alt text
- Content length
- Title and meta description length
- Exactly one H1
- Internal and outbound links
Readability score
Whether a real person on a phone will get through it.
- Flesch Reading Ease and grade level
- Share of sentences over 20 words
- Paragraphs over 150 words
- Distance between subheadings
- Share of sentences in passive voice
- Share of sentences using transitions
- Runs of sentences opening the same way
Frequently asked questions
What is a good keyword density?
Between roughly 0.5% and 3% of total words, which is the range this tool scores against and the same window Yoast uses. Below 0.5% on a long page and the topic is under-stated; above 3% it reads as stuffing to a human long before it becomes a penalty risk. Density is a sanity check, not a target — write for the reader first and confirm the number afterwards.
How is the SEO score calculated?
It is a weighted average of individual checks: keyphrase in the title, H1, a subheading, the opening paragraph, the meta description and the URL; keyphrase density inside the healthy range; content length; title and meta description length; heading structure; and internal and outbound links. Each check is worth more or less depending on how much it actually matters. Every check shows the number behind it and the specific edit that would fix it.
How is the readability score calculated?
From six measures: Flesch Reading Ease, the share of sentences over 20 words, paragraphs over 150 words, how far the text runs without a subheading, the share of sentences in passive voice, and the share using transition words. These are the same signals Yoast reports. Passive-voice and syllable detection are English heuristics and will occasionally miscount — the tool tells you that rather than presenting them as fact.
What is the difference between the URL and paste modes?
URL mode fetches the live page and reads its title, meta description, headings, links and images, so you get the full check list. Paste mode analyses text you supply and runs entirely in your browser, so nothing is transmitted anywhere — use it to score a draft before it exists as a page. In paste mode you can optionally supply a title, meta description and slug to unlock the checks that depend on them.
Why does the tool report fewer words than my page has?
Because it deliberately excludes navigation, footers and sidebars. A density checker that counts your main menu will always tell you "home" and "contact" are among your top keywords, which is useless. Where a page marks up a main or article element, the tool reads only that; otherwise it reads the body minus nav, footer and aside.
Do these scores affect my Google rankings?
No search engine runs these formulas, and a green light is not a ranking prediction. What the scores do is catch the on-page mistakes that reliably stop good content performing — a missing H1, a keyphrase absent from the title, 400 words with no subheading, paragraphs nobody will read on a phone. Fixing those does not guarantee a ranking; leaving them broken reliably costs you one.
Does the keyword table count phrases or just single words?
Both. There is a separate table for one, two, three and four-word phrases, because search intent lives in phrases far more than in single words. Single-word tables drop stop words entirely; longer phrase tables drop anything that starts or ends on a stop word, which keeps "how to remove metadata" while discarding "to remove the".
Related tools and reading
A green score is not a strategy.
Optimising a page you should not have written is the most common waste in content marketing. The harder question is which pages deserve to exist, and what each one has to prove.
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