The advice to "use your keyword naturally" is easy to say and hard to self-assess while you're writing. Here's a concrete process instead of a vague rule.
Write the draft without watching the keyword count
Trying to hit a keyword target while drafting almost always produces worse writing — you end up bending sentences around the phrase instead of writing what actually answers the reader's question. Write naturally first.
Check density after, not during
Once you have a full draft, run it through a free keyword density checker. There's no single "correct" percentage, but if your primary phrase is showing up well above 3% of your total words, it's usually reading unnaturally even if you didn't notice while writing — that's the real test, not the number itself.
Use variations, not just repetition
Search engines have understood synonyms and related phrases for years, so there's no ranking benefit to repeating the exact phrase over natural variations, related terms, and the way a real person would actually refer to the topic across a longer piece.
Don't forget the parts outside the body text
Your title tag and meta description matter more per-word than your body copy, since they're what a searcher actually reads in results before clicking. Build these with a free meta tag generator so the keyword shows up where it counts most, rather than relying on body-text repetition to carry the whole page.
The bottom line
Optimize by checking after you write, not by constraining yourself while writing — it produces both better-reading content and a more defensible keyword usage pattern.
Try it yourself
Put this into practice with our SEO Tools.