What is keyword density?
Definition
Keyword density is the share of a page's words taken up by one keyword or phrase. Google publishes no ideal percentage and has never recommended one.
The calculation is simple: count how often a phrase appears, multiply by the number of words in the phrase, divide by the page's total word count, and multiply by 100. SEO tools have long displayed it, often with a suggested target of one to two percent. Those targets come from the tools, not from Google.
Google's only published rule about keyword frequency is the ban on keyword stuffing in its spam policies. Repeating a phrase unnaturally can hurt a page; hitting a particular percentage cannot help it. The honest use of a density check is as a guardrail. A sudden high number usually means a page has started chanting a phrase, and a very low one can mean it has wandered off its own topic.
Why does it matter to your business?
Chasing a density target wastes editing time and can push copy into stuffing. Covering the topic well does what density was always a crude stand-in for.
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Sources, verified September 11, 2026
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