What it tells you
Two different things, depending on why you came.
If you are editing: the words you lean on. Everyone has a crutch — actually, just, really, very, the name of the thing you are writing about repeated eleven times in four paragraphs. You stop noticing them while writing; a frequency list makes them obvious in seconds.
If you are checking a page for search: the density of your terms. Useful as a sanity check that the page is about what you think, and as a warning when a phrase is repeated to a degree that reads badly.
The controls
- Single words / two-word phrases / three-word phrases — phrases usually tell you more than single words. “Word processor” appearing nine times is meaningful; “word” appearing nine times might not be.
- Skip common words — hides the, and, of and the rest of the function words, which otherwise take every top spot. On by default. Turn it off if you want the true raw counts.
Variety is unique words divided by total words. It falls as a piece gets longer, so it is only worth comparing between texts of similar length — but a very low figure on a short piece usually means repetition worth looking at.
On keyword density
There is no target number. The idea that a page should hit some particular percentage is a holdover from a much older era of search, and writing to hit it produces text that reads badly — which is itself the problem.
The useful signal is the opposite one: if a phrase is at a density that makes you wince reading it aloud, it will read that way to everyone else too. Use the number to catch overuse, not to chase a quota.
Common questions
Is my text uploaded?
No. The counting happens in this page.
Are different forms of a word counted together?
No. Write, writes and writing are counted separately, since it counts words rather than stems.
Which words count as common?
A standard English stop-word list of about 150 articles, pronouns, prepositions and auxiliary verbs. It only applies to English — for other languages, turn the option off.
How many results are shown?
The top 25, ordered by count. For a total word count with sentences and reading time, use the Word Counter.
