Article Density Checker: Free Keyword Analyzer

An article density checker shows how often each word and phrase appears in your text, so you can spot overused terms before you publish. Paste your draft into this free article density checker and it returns 1-word, 2-word and 3-word density lists with common stop words removed, plus word, sentence and paragraph counts.

What Is Article Density?

Article density is the share of your text taken up by a particular word or phrase, usually written as a percentage. It is the same idea as keyword density, applied to a whole article rather than a single target keyword.

The basic math is simple: divide the number of times a word or phrase appears by the total number of words, then multiply by 100. A term used 12 times in a 600-word post sits at roughly 2%. Phrases work the same way, so a two-word phrase that appears 6 times in that post is around 1%.

Density matters because it shows what your article is really about. Search engines read your page for topic signals, and Google's Search Central guidance warns against keyword stuffing, which means repeating terms unnaturally. Google does not publish an ideal percentage, so density is best used as a sanity check, not a target to chase.

If you want to look at one specific term in depth, the Keyword Density Checker is built for that. This page is better when you want a full map of every repeated word and phrase in a draft.

How to Use the Article Density Checker

You can analyze an article in four quick steps, and you do not need an account.

1. Copy your article from your editor and paste it into the large text box. The box works best with articles of 300 words or more.
2. Watch the Words and Characters counters above the box update as you paste. Click Clear to empty the box and start over.
3. Click Check Density. The results panel fills with Words, Characters, Chars (no spaces), Sentences and Paragraphs.
4. Open the 1-Word, 2-Word and 3-Word tabs. Each tab shows a count badge and the list of terms with their density, rated against the Low, Good, High and Very High bands.
5. Click Copy Results to paste the lists into a spreadsheet or a note for your editor.
6. Click Reset to wipe everything, or Sample to load example text and see how the output looks before you use your own.

Stop words such as "the", "and", "with" and "should" are skipped automatically, so your lists show meaningful terms instead of filler.

Worked Example: Reading a Real Result

Say you paste a 900-word blog post about brewing coffee at home. After you click Check Density, you see this in the tabs:

Here is how to read it. "Coffee" at about 3% falls in the High band (2.5% to 4%). For the main topic word of a coffee article that is not alarming, but it is a signal to reread the draft and check whether some sentences repeat the word when "it", "the drink" or a more specific term would read better.

"Cold brew" at about 1% is in the Good band (0.5% to 2.5%), so leave it alone. "French press method" sits under 0.5%, which is Low. That is fine for a supporting phrase, but if the method deserves its own section, mention it where it fits naturally.

A sensible edit would be to trim "coffee" from 27 uses to about 18, which brings it near 2%. Run the check again to confirm. Exact figures can differ slightly from hand math because stop words are left out of the lists.

How Do You Read and Act on the Density Results?

Each density figure falls into one of four bands, and each band calls for a different action.

Low (under 0.5%)

The term appears rarely. This is normal for most words. It is only a problem if the term is your main topic. In that case, add it to the title, an early paragraph and a subheading where it reads naturally.

Good (0.5% to 2.5%)

This is the comfortable range for a main keyword or phrase. Nothing needs fixing. Focus on whether the article actually answers the reader's question.

High (2.5% to 4%)

The term is prominent. Read the draft aloud. If you notice the repetition, swap some uses for synonyms, pronouns or related phrases. If it sounds natural, you can keep it.

Very High (over 4%)

This usually reads as stuffing. Cut repeated mentions, merge sentences and replace some uses with variations. Then paste the new version and check again.

Using the 2-Word and 3-Word tabs

Phrase tabs reveal repetition that single words hide. A draft can look balanced word by word while one phrase such as "best running shoes" appears in every paragraph. Check these tabs for crutch phrases, awkward repeats and gaps where an important phrase never shows up.

The Words, Sentences and Paragraphs counts add context. A long article with very few paragraphs is hard to scan, and long sentences are a hint that you should split them.

Who Should Use an Article Density Checker?

Anyone who edits text before publishing can use it to find repetition that is hard to see on a screen.

• Bloggers and SEO writers confirm the main topic term appears enough without being forced.
• Editors compare a freelancer's draft against the brief and spot overused phrases quickly.
• Students find repeated words in essays and swap them for more varied vocabulary.
• Agency teams copy the results into a content audit sheet to document what each page emphasizes.
• Site owners refreshing old posts see which terms earlier writers repeated and where new topics should be added.

It also works as a topic check. If the top 1-word and 2-word results do not match what you meant to write about, the draft may have drifted off target.

Best Practices, Common Mistakes and Troubleshooting

Treat density as a diagnostic, not a goal. Write for the reader first, then use the numbers to catch problems.

• Paste the body text only. Menus, footers and comment sections add words that skew the percentages.
• Use enough text. Under 300 words, a few repeats swing the percentages wildly. A 100-word snippet with a term used 4 times looks like 4%, which says little.
• Do not chase one percentage. No search engine publishes an ideal density. Aim for natural language that covers the topic fully.
• Look beyond the exact keyword. Cover related terms and subtopics. Pull ideas from the Google Autocomplete Keyword Extractor or the Advanced Keyword Tool to see what people really search for.
• Check after editing. Rerun the analysis once you rewrite, because trimming one term can raise the share of others.
• Fix the writing, then the numbers. After you reduce repetition, run the draft through the Grammar Checker to catch errors the edits introduced.

If a word you expected is missing from the 1-Word list, it may be a stop word, and those are filtered out on purpose. If a phrase seems absent, check the 2-Word or 3-Word tab and make sure it is spelled the same way each time in your text.

Limitations to Keep in Mind

This tool counts words and phrases. It does not judge quality, search intent, expertise or whether your content is helpful. A page can have perfect density and still rank poorly if it does not answer the query.

The density bands are widely used rules of thumb, not official limits from Google. The tool also analyzes only the text you paste, so it cannot tell you how your page compares with competitors. Use it alongside your own judgment and a read-through of the finished draft. For the headline, a separate check with the Headline Analyzer covers what density cannot.

Paste your next draft into the checker on this page, review the three tabs, and trim anything that lands in the High or Very High band. When you are ready to polish the rest of your content, browse the Content Writing Tools collection for your next step.