Keyword density and phrase counts: what the numbers mean
OrangeTool · Updated
Keyword density is a repetition measure, not a ranking target. For a single word, divide its count by total words. For a phrase, OrangeTool divides by the available phrase windows and states that denominator.
A small example
In “red blue red”, red appears twice among three words, or 66.67%. There are two possible two-word windows: “red blue” and “blue red”. Each occurs once, so each is 50% of those windows. Dividing a phrase count by unique phrases or by characters would answer a different question.
How the checker treats text
The checker normalizes Unicode, ignores case and removes punctuation before building one-, two- or three-word windows. Windows may cross sentence boundaries. It keeps common words and numbers rather than silently removing stop words. It shows the top 100 phrases and exports those same rows.
Use repetition to edit
Look for an expression repeated more often than the explanation needs, then decide whether it helps the reader. Do not add awkward repetitions to reach a percentage. Search visibility depends on much more than counts, and no density threshold guarantees rankings or inclusion in an AI answer.
Review the meaning too
Counts cannot tell whether a passage is accurate or answers a question. Explain the task directly, include a useful example, and link to relevant sources or a working tool. That helps readers understand the page without padding it with near-duplicate keyword variations.