Keyword density is the percentage of times a target keyword appears in your content relative to total word count. Calculate it manually by searching for your exact phrase in a Google Doc (Ctrl+F shows occurrence count), dividing by total words, and multiplying by 100. A page with 1,200 words using a keyword 15 times has 1.25% density. Most practitioners use tools instead of manual counting. Yoast SEO shows density in WordPress dashboards. Surfer SEO analyzes density against top-ranking competitors for your query. Free options include online keyword density checkers where you paste your HTML or text. Screaming Frog can extract keyword frequency across entire sites if you're auditing at scale. The 2-3% density rule from 2005 is dead. Modern Google cares about topical relevance and natural language, not hitting a magic percentage. We've seen pages rank first with 0.8% density and others penalized at 4% for over-optimization. Context matters more than the number. At Ottawa SEO, we check density during content audits but focus on intent match and semantic coverage. If a keyword feels forced when you read aloud, it's probably too dense regardless of the percentage. We aim for primary keywords to appear in the title, first 100 words, at least one H2, and naturally throughout without repetition that disrupts readability. Watch for keyword stuffing signals: awkward phrasing, identical anchor text in internal links, or keyword variants crammed into every sentence. Google's algorithms flag unnatural repetition patterns. Also check related terms and synonyms rather than obsessing over exact-match density. A page about "Ottawa web design" should naturally include "website development," "designer," "agency," and location terms without tracking each one's percentage. Density is a diagnostic metric, not a target. If you're below 0.5%, you might be too vague. Above 3%, you're likely stuffing. Between those bounds, let user experience and comprehensive topic coverage guide your writing, not a percentage calculator.