What is keyword density, and does it matter?

Keyword density, explained

The calculation is simple: occurrences of the phrase divided by total words. Early search engines leaned heavily on term frequency, so SEO advice once recommended specific densities. That advice outlived the algorithms it was written for.

Google's SEO Starter Guide steers you toward content that is useful and easy to read rather than toward keyword counts, and it says there's no magical word count to hit either. Its spam policies define keyword stuffing as filling a web page with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate rankings, with examples like lists of phrases or repeated blocks of city names that read unnaturally. So there's no ideal density, and a high one can hurt.

Density checks are still useful, just the other way around. Run a page through a density checker to catch accidental repetition, like the same phrase in every heading and every image alt, or to see whether a page mentions its topic at all in plain words. If the phrase people search appears nowhere on your page, that's worth fixing; if it appears in every sentence, that's worth fixing too.

What matters more than counts is coverage: does the page answer the question, include the terms a reader would expect, and use the words your customers use rather than internal jargon?

Why it matters for founders

Some SEO plugins still grade pages on density, pushing founders toward awkward, repetitive copy. Knowing Google doesn't use a target lets you write naturally.

Example

A plugin says your "AI video editor" page needs 2% density. A checker shows the phrase already appears in the title, H1, intro and two headings. You leave it, and add a comparison table instead.

Common mistakes

• Writing to a density target.
• Repeating the exact phrase in every heading and alt attribute.
• Avoiding synonyms and natural variants.
• Never using the words customers actually search.