What is keyword density?
Keyword density is the number of times a keyword appears in a text as a proportion of the total number of words, expressed as a percentage.
Formula:
Плотность = (Количество вхождений / Общее число слов) × 100%
For example, with 10 occurrences of a keyword in a text of 500 words:
Плотность = (10 / 500) × 100% = 2%
The history and significance of the metric
Keyword density can help identify frequent repetition, but it does not assess text quality or predict rankings on its own. In Google SEO Office Hours for January 2023 Google explains directly that it does not use the concept of an optimal density. However, the topic of a page should be clearly named: readers and search engines should understand what it is about.
Keyword stuffing means filling a page with words or numbers to manipulate search results, for example, using unnatural lists or repeating terms out of context. Google’s spam policies describe this behavior without setting a universal percentage threshold. A density value alone cannot establish whether a violation has occurred or identify a specific algorithm as the cause.
Recommended values
There is no universally recommended percentage. Consider where and why a phrase is repeated:
| Observation | What to check | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| A high proportion in a short passage | The length of the text and whether the term is necessary | Read the passage rather than deleting the word based only on its percentage |
| Whole sentences are repeated | Duplicates, template blocks, and navigation | Remove repetitions that add no meaning |
| The topic is not named | Whether the page’s purpose is clear to the reader | Clearly name the subject where it helps the reader understand the text |
| There is a list of terms without a coherent explanation | Whether the list is useful to the reader | Remove the artificial list or provide the necessary explanations |
The same proportion can occur in both useful text and an unnatural collection of phrases. Deciding which it is requires reading the page, not comparing it with a “standard.”
A modern approach: LSI and semantics
Related wording is useful when it helps address a question, explain characteristics, or name conditions. In SEO, such terms are often loosely called “LSI keywords”; this kind of list is not equivalent to the mathematical method of Latent Semantic Indexing and is not a mandatory set of words. Read more in the guide to LSI and topical wording.
Основной запрос: "SEO-аудит"
Связанные формулировки: "проверка сайта", "технический анализ", "поисковая оптимизация",
"сканирование ошибок", "индексация", "PageSpeed", "мета-теги"
This list is an example for editors, not a ready-made quota or a promise of rankings. Add a phrase if it is needed to answer the question; the presence of related words alone does not guarantee rankings.
How to calculate keyword density
Manually
const text = "SEO аудит сайта это анализ сайта для улучшения позиций.";
const keyword = "сайта";
const words = text.toLowerCase().match(/[\p{L}\p{N}]+/gu) || [];
const matches = words.filter(word => word === keyword.toLowerCase()).length;
const density = words.length ? (matches / words.length * 100) : 0;
console.log(`Плотность: ${density.toFixed(2)}%`); // 2 из 9 слов = 22.22%The example counts one exact word without combining inflected forms. A high percentage in such a short phrase does not by itself mean keyword stuffing. To compare results, use the same definitions of words, occurrences, and the part of the page being analyzed.
Tools
Use a text analyzer or an occurrence counter with a clear counting method. Check what the report includes: the main text or the whole page, the exact word or its inflected forms, one phrase or a list. Results from different tools may not be comparable unless these conditions are the same.
Check keywords on reChecker
In Keyword Analysis, enter a page URL and manually selected words or phrases, separated by commas. The report shows:
- The number of times the selected phrases appear and their proportion in the text
- Whether they appear in the Title, meta tags, headings, and main text
- The distribution of repetitions, which should be assessed together with the page content
This checks occurrences on the specified page; it does not measure search demand, automatically collect semantic keywords, or evaluate future rankings.
FAQ
Is an exact-match keyword more important than its inflected forms? There is no need to mechanically repeat every variation of a query. Clearly name the topic and purpose of the page using wording readers can understand. The number of exact matches does not determine rankings; in the simple calculation above, different inflected forms are counted separately.
Should keywords be used in H2-H3 headings? Subheadings should clearly describe their sections. Use relevant words, but do not insert the same exact phrase into every heading just to increase the count.
Does keyword stuffing happen only in text? Artificial repetition can occur in different page elements. Write titles and headings to reflect the content, alt text to describe the image, and link text to reflect the link’s purpose. The percentage of occurrences does not replace a check that this wording is appropriate, and does not prove a violation of Google’s rules.