What is word frequency analysis?
Word frequency analysis counts how many times each unique word appears in a text and ranks them by occurrence. It is a fundamental technique in linguistics, natural language processing, content analysis, and SEO. By understanding which words dominate a piece of writing, you can identify the core topics and themes, spot unintentional repetition, evaluate keyword density for search engine optimisation, and compare writing style across different documents or authors.
Stop words explained
Stop words are common function words like "the", "a", "is", "in", and "of" that appear frequently in almost all English texts but carry little specific meaning about the topic. When stop word filtering is enabled, these words are excluded from the results so the most meaningful content words rise to the top of the frequency table. Disable stop word filtering to see the full picture including all function words — useful when studying writing style or grammatical patterns rather than topic keywords.
How to use this tool for SEO
Paste a web page's body content into the tool and enable stop word filtering to quickly see which keywords dominate the text. The percentage column shows each word's share of total word count, which gives a rough idea of keyword density. A well-optimised page typically has its target keyword appearing at a natural frequency — usually 1–3% — without forced repetition. Comparing the frequency table of your page against a top-ranking competitor's content can reveal keyword gaps or over-optimisation issues.
Writing and editing uses
Word frequency analysis is also valuable for writers and editors. Sorting by frequency with stop words enabled reveals vocabulary diversity — a high-quality piece of writing uses a wide range of words rather than leaning heavily on a small set. If a single content word appears dozens of times more than any other, it may be worth varying the phrasing. Academic writers can use the tool to verify that key terminology appears consistently across a paper. Journalists can check that sources and names are balanced throughout an article.