Measuring Keyword Density With Yoast SEO

Keyword density measures how many times you use a keyword in a piece of content compared to the total amount of words on that page.

In the Yoast SEO plugin, this is known as keyphrase density.

In this article, we will show you how to find and manage your keyphrase density using Yoast SEO.

• How to Find Keyword Density in Yoast SEO
• How to Fix a Red Keyphrase Density Score

How to Find Keyword Density in Yoast SEO

1. Once you have logged into your WordPress Dashboard, the first thing you will need to do is install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin. 
2. After the plugin has been installed, select which existing post or page you would like to optimize. 
3. From within a post or page, scroll down to the bottom until you see the Yoast SEO section, then find the Focus keyphrase field.
4. Enter your desired keyphrase(s). For the purpose of this article, we will be using a single keyphrase.
   
   
   
5. Scroll down until you see the SEO analysis/keyword density section.
   
   
   
6. Depending on your keyword density score, you will find a bullet for it under either the Problems, Improvements, or Good results section.*
   
   
   
   *Of note, Yoast SEO can only perform the keyphrase density check when a piece of content consists of at least 100 words.

How to Fix a Red Keyphrase Density Score

The keyphrase density check in Yoast SEO assesses whether you have used the word or words from your focus keyphrase often enough or not often enough in your copy.

Not only does Yoast SEO let you how many times you already used your keyphrase in the text, but the plugin will also give you an idea about how many times you should use it.

To see how many times you have used your focus keyphrase and where all you have used it in your content, click the eyeball icon next to the Keyphrase density bullet.

This will highlight all the uses of your keyphrase in the existing text.

In the free version of Yoast SEO plugin, you will get a green bullet if your keyphrase density lies anywhere between 0.5 and 3%. If you are getting a red bullet on your keyword density score, you are either using too much or too little of your focus keyphrase.

Yoast SEO has some suggestions if that is the case:

• Ensure your full focus keyphrase is within one sentence or it won’t count.
• Check your spelling. If you use [pancake] in your text, but entered [pencake] in the focus keyphrase field, the plugin will not recognize it. Writing [Pancake] or even [PANCAKE] will not impact recognition though as capitalization does not matter.
• If your keyphrase density is too high (known as keyword stuffing), make better use of synonyms for the keyphrase. Synonyms of your focus keyphrase will not count towards your total score, but they will likely make your text more pleasant to read.
• Some WordPress page builders conflict with the Yoast SEO plugin. If the plugin is not able to find your content or your keyphrase due to a page builder, the results will be distorted. The fastest way to rule out conflicts is to perform a conflict check.
• Some non-Latin or non-ideograph-based languages may not calculate accurately. If you run into one of these instances, Yoast SEO asks that you submit a bug report.

Unlike some other SEO plugins, Yoast SEO does not share the percentage that a keyphrase is mentioned in the feedback it provides. Instead, it shares the exact number of times you have used the keyphrase throughout your text and compares that to the number of times it advises using it.

Congratulations, you now know how to find and manage your keyword density score using Yoast SEO.

If you are looking for even more Yoast SEO tips, check out How to Add Meta Descriptions in Yoast SEO and Adding Title Tags in Yoast SEO.