A draft can mention the right topic yet feel awkward because every sentence repeats the same phrase. A keyword count helps you find that pattern, but a percentage cannot decide whether the wording serves the reader. Use this review to identify repetition, improve the explanation, and keep the terms that need to recur.
Start with the sentence, not a target percentage
Google describes keyword stuffing as filling a page with keywords or numbers to manipulate rankings. Its examples include repetition that sounds unnatural or appears out of context. That is a reason to read the passage, rather than automatically delete every frequently used word.
The people-first content guidance asks whether readers can achieve their goal after reading. It also says Google has no preferred word count. Adding filler to lower a percentage does not make an explanation more useful.
These guides do not prescribe a keyword-density percentage. Treat a count as an editing clue, not evidence of a ranking problem or a promise that a rewrite will improve rankings.
Keep the input and settings consistent
Open the Keyword Density Checker and paste the section you want to review. For a fair comparison, analyse the same scope each time: an introduction against its revised introduction, or the complete body against the revised body. Mixing menus and footers into only one version changes the comparison.
- Keep the default minimum word length of 3 characters for the example below.
- Leave Exclude common stop words selected and set Results per table to Top 20 for both drafts.
- Press Check Keyword Density. Read the total word count, then inspect single words and repeated phrases.
- Save the original text and its counts before making changes.
This checker divides each count by the total recognised word count, including words excluded from the results table. Two-word and three-word phrases appear only when they occur more than once. Its 4% highlight is a review heuristic belonging to this tool, not a search-engine rule.
Work through a short utility-page example
Before: the name crowds out the instructions
Use this word counter to check your draft. The word counter counts words in your draft so you can see the length. Paste your draft into the word counter before you submit your draft.
This original example contains 34 words under the checker. The word draft appears four times, giving 4 ÷ 34 × 100 = 11.76%. The phrase word counter appears three times, giving 8.82%. The same 34-word denominator is used for the phrase; it is not the number of possible two-word combinations.
The issue is visible without the percentages: the first two sentences explain almost the same task, while the last repeats the tool name and the object being checked.
After: retain the name and add a useful next step
Use this word counter to check the length of your draft before submitting it. Paste the text, review the count, and compare it with the limit required by your application.
The revised example contains 30 words. Draft now appears once, giving 3.33%. The tool name still appears once, so a reader understands the subject. The phrase disappears from the repeated-phrase table because its count is one, not because it is absent.
The improvement is the clearer procedure and removal of redundant explanation. The lower percentage describes the edit; it is not the goal or a scoring system for writing.
Decide what each repetition contributes
For each frequent phrase, locate its sentences in the draft and ask what the second or third mention adds. Keep a repetition when it identifies a new object or avoids ambiguity. Rewrite it when it merely restates the previous instruction.
Do not blindly replace technical terms with synonyms. A JSON tutorial may need to say JSON repeatedly; changing it to unrelated descriptions can blur the meaning. Similarly, a product name should remain accurate. Sometimes combining two sentences removes repetition more cleanly than swapping individual words.
Google’s SEO Starter Guide recommends natural, readable writing. It explains that its language systems can relate pages to queries even when every exact search-term variation is not included. You do not need a list of near-identical phrases in each paragraph.
Compare the rewrite before publishing
Run the revised passage with the same settings. Then use the draft comparison workflow to check that the edit retained the required instructions, limitations, and examples. Read the paragraph aloud: can someone follow it without rereading?
Review headings separately from body frequency. A concise heading that identifies the subject can be useful even when the same term occurs below it. For a title review, follow the practical title-tag examples.
Stop when the passage is accurate, clear, and complete for its task. A frequently repeated term can remain when removing it would make the instructions harder to understand.