"Make Sure Keyword Density Is 2-3%"
No.
Stop.
This advice died years ago and yet it keeps shambling around like a zombie, refusing to stay dead.
Why Keyword Density Is Meaningless
Google's algorithm uses natural language processing, semantic understanding, and entity recognition. It doesn't count how many times you used a word and divide by total words.
That's not how it works. That hasn't been how it works for over a decade.
What Google Actually Cares About
Topical relevance. Does your content comprehensively cover the topic?
Semantic context. Do you use related terms, synonyms, and entities that naturally appear in content about this topic?
User satisfaction. Does the content answer the query? Do people stick around or bounce?
What to Do Instead
Use your primary keyword in the title, first 100 words, one H2, and meta title. That's your baseline.
Then forget about counting. Write naturally. Cover the topic thoroughly. Use related terms organically.
If you read your content out loud and a keyword sounds forced, remove it.
Ahrefs' on-page SEO guide confirms this approach -- focus on relevance, not repetition.
SEO Checkup focuses on what actually matters -- 113 real SEO tasks. Not keyword counting. Free. 30 seconds.