Keyword Analysis: a beginner's guide
On-page keyword extraction and density
Keyword analysis: what your page is actually about, in a search engine's eyes
Keyword analysis is the process of figuring out what topics, concepts, and search queries a webpage is really about — not what you think it's about, but what a search engine reading it would conclude. It is one of the most undervalued skills in content marketing, because most writers believe that as long as they write well about their topic, the search engines will naturally figure out what the page is for. They will not. Search engines look at the words on the page in a specific way, and writing that doesn't account for that way will quietly underperform writing that does.
You should care because the gap between "the page I wrote" and "the page Google thinks I wrote" is where most SEO traffic disappears. A page about "the best running shoes for marathon training" that talks mostly about hydration strategy and the author's race history is a page Google will not rank well for any running-shoes query, no matter how good the writing is. Keyword analysis is how you catch that gap before you publish — and how you decide whether your existing pages are actually competing for the queries you want them to compete for.
The five things every keyword analysis looks at:
Term frequency. Which words appear most often on the page? If your target keyword appears less than your stylistic synonyms for it, you may have written around the topic instead of about it.
Search intent matching. Is the page informational, transactional, navigational, or local? A how-to article competing against product pages will lose every time. The fastest way to check intent is to look at what already ranks for the query — if the top results are all guides, the search intent is informational.
Topical coverage. Is the page covering all the sub-topics that Google associates with the main topic? A page about "SPF records" that doesn't mention DKIM, DMARC, or alignment is missing context that Google expects.
Heading hierarchy. Are the H1, H2, and H3 tags actually about the topic, or are they generic ("Introduction," "Background," "Conclusion")? Headings carry disproportionate weight in how Google understands a page.
Internal linking context. Which other pages on the same site link to this one, and what anchor text do they use? Internal links are how search engines distribute topical authority within a site.
Three questions a keyword analysis answers:
Is my page actually about the thing I think it's about, in the way a search engine would interpret it?
Am I missing any of the related sub-topics that the top-ranking pages all cover?
Should I optimize this existing page, or should I write a separate one for a closely-related query?
The cost of skipping keyword analysis is the slow accumulation of well-written pages that earn no traffic because they don't quite match what real searchers are looking for. The fix is a 15-minute pre-publish review, ideally checked against the search intent of the top-ranking results for your target query. This is the difference between writing for an audience that exists and writing for one that doesn't.
The Keyword Analysis endpoint, in plain language
In one sentence: On-page keyword extraction and density
Performs on-page keyword analysis including keyword extraction, density calculation, phrase analysis, and alignment checks between title, headings, meta description (meta description tag), and content.
Don't worry if some of the words above are still unfamiliar — there's a plain-language glossary at the bottom of this page, and most of the terms link to their own beginner guides if you want to learn more.
What is actually happening when you call it
Here's what's actually happening behind the scenes when you call this endpoint:
Extracts and analyzes keywords from page elements: title tag, meta description (meta description tag), H1/H2 headings, and body content. Calculates density for single words, two-word phrases, and three-word phrases. Checks keyword alignment across page elements (does the title contain the top keyword? does the H1?). Evaluates content focus as focused, moderate, or scattered.
If you're using an AI assistant through MCP, you don't need to understand any of the technical details — the assistant calls the tool and translates the result for you.
Why this specific tool matters
Let's skip the marketing fluff and answer the only question that actually matters: why should you, a real human with a real to-do list, care about the Keyword Analysis tool? Here's the plain-English version, written the way you'd hear it from a friend who happens to do this for a living.
Keyword optimization is foundational to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This analysis reveals whether your content is focused on target keywords, whether key page elements are aligned, and identifies over-optimization or keyword stuffing risks.
Picture this in real life. Imagine a content writer. Here's the situation they're walking into: Analyze a published page to verify keyword usage and density align with target terms. Without the right tool, that person would be stuck copy-pasting between five browser tabs, reading documentation written for engineers, and crossing their fingers that the answer they cobble together is correct. With the Keyword Analysis tool, the same person gets a clear answer in seconds — no spreadsheets, no guessing, no waiting for someone on the infrastructure team to free up.
Three questions this tool answers in plain English. If any of these have ever crossed your mind, the Keyword Analysis tool is built for you:
Are search engines actually able to crawl, understand, and recommend my pages?
What is the single biggest fix I could make today to climb in Google?
How does my site compare against the technical SEO checklist that the top results all pass?
You can either click the tool and get the answer yourself, or ask your AI assistant — connected through MCP (Model Context Protocol) — to ask the question for you and translate the answer into something you can paste into Slack.
Who gets the most out of this. Marketers, content writers, freelancers running client sites, founders trying to grow without paying for ads, and SEO specialists running monthly health checks. If you see yourself in that list, this is one of the EdgeDNS tools you should bookmark today.
What happens if you skip this entirely. Skip it and search engines quietly stop sending you traffic and you don't find out until the next quarterly review. That's why running this check — even once a month — is one of the cheapest forms of insurance you can give your domain.
Available on the developer plan. The technical details: `GET /v1/domain/keyword-analysis`.
When would I actually use this?
If you're still on the fence about whether the Keyword Analysis tool belongs in your toolbox, this section is for you. Below you'll meet three real people — a content writer, a SEO strategist, and an SEO manager — facing three real situations where this tool turns a stressful afternoon into a five-minute task. Read whichever story sounds closest to your week.
Story 1: Content Optimization
Imagine you're a content writer. Analyze a published page to verify keyword usage and density align with target terms.
Why it matters: Optimize content for target keywords without over-optimization.
Story 2: Competitive Keyword Analysis
Imagine you're an SEO strategist. Analyze competitor pages to understand which keywords they target and how they optimize.
Why it matters: Inform content strategy based on competitor keyword targeting.
Story 3: Content Audit
Imagine you're an SEO manager. Bulk-analyze pages across a site to identify keyword cannibalization and content gaps.
Why it matters: Resolve keyword conflicts and find new content opportunities.
Common situations across teams. Beyond the three stories above, here are the everyday workplace moments when people across the company reach for the Keyword Analysis tool — or one of the tools right next to it in this category. If any of these are on your calendar this month, that's your sign:
Before launching a new page, site, or campaign — to catch the dumb mistakes.
During a quarterly SEO health check.
When organic traffic suddenly drops and you need to find out why.
When pitching a new client and you need an audit deck in under an hour.
If you can see yourself in even one of those bullets, the Keyword Analysis tool will pay for itself the first time you use it.
Still not sure? Here's the easiest test in the world. Open Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other AI assistant connected to the EdgeDNS MCP server and ask, in your own words: "Is the Keyword Analysis tool useful for my job?" The assistant will look at the tool, ask you a couple of follow-up questions about what you're trying to accomplish, and give you a straight answer in plain English. No commitment, no signup forms, no jargon.
The easiest way: just ask your AI assistant
If you've connected the EdgeDNS MCP server to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor, or any other AI assistant, you don't need to write any code. Just ask in plain English:
"Use the Keyword Analysis tool to check example.com and explain anything that looks wrong in plain language."
The AI will figure out which tool to call, fill in the right parameters, run it, and then explain the result back to you. No copy-pasting between tabs. No reading raw JSON. No memorizing endpoint names.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) access is free on every plan, including the free tier. One API key works for both REST and AI — you do not have to choose.
The technical way: call it from code
If you're a developer and want to call the endpoint from a script or your own application, here's the simplest possible example. Replace the placeholder API key with the real one from your dashboard.
# Replace edns_live_YOUR_KEY with your real API key from the dashboard
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer edns_live_YOUR_KEY" \
"https://api.edgedns.dev/v1/domain/keyword-analysis?domain=example.com"What you need to provide
There's just one piece of information you need to provide. The table below explains exactly what it is and what a real value looks like.
| Field | Type | Required? | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
domain | string | Yes | The domain to perform keyword analysis on | example.com |
What you get back
When you call this tool, you'll get back a JSON object with the fields below. If you're talking to it through an AI assistant, the assistant reads these for you and explains them in plain language — you don't need to memorize them.
| Field | Type | What you'll see in it |
|---|---|---|
domain | string | The analyzed domain |
targetKeywords | array | Inferred target keywords from title, H1, and meta description (meta description tag) |
titleKeywords | array | Keywords found in the title tag |
metaDescriptionKeywords | array | Keywords found in the meta description (meta description tag) |
h1Keywords | array | Keywords found in H1 headings |
h2Keywords | array | Keywords found in H2 headings |
singleWords | array | Top single keywords with count and density |
twoWordPhrases | array | Top two-word phrases with density |
threeWordPhrases | array | Top three-word phrases with density |
keywordAlignment | object | Whether top keywords appear in title, H1, URL (web address), and meta |
metaKeywords | object | Meta keywords tag analysis with present flag, keywords array, and note |
contentFocus | object | Content focus score and assessment (focused/moderate/scattered) |
wordCount | number | Total word count of page content |
score | number | Keyword optimization score (0-100) |
grade | string | Letter grade (A-F) based on score |
recommendations | array | Keyword optimization suggestions |
Words you might be wondering about
If any words on this page felt like jargon, here's a plain-language version. Click any linked term to read a full beginner-friendly guide.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) — Everything you do to help search engines like Google find, understand, and rank your website.
meta description (meta description tag) — A short summary of a web page that you embed in the page's source code. Search engines often display it under the page title in search results.
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