What is a good primary keyword frequency for articles?

I have been writing infotainment articles for a while now. The site I publish for is an entertainment/news site with decent traffic and some backlinks. Taking from general SEO advice, I try my best to write human-first articles instead of 'gaming Google'. Here is a breakdown of what I do:

1. Use primary kw in H1, first H2 of the article and 2-3 times in the article depending on where I can naturally fit it.
2. Add secondary/related kw(s) in H2 and the corresponding paragraph once.
3. Articles are usually 800-1300 words long.
4. Pictures with relevant captions, alt-text and title.
5. Primary kw used in the SEO title. Sometimes in the meta description if it can fit naturally.

I noticed that when I overuse keywords in a post, it ranks higher and can even land on the first SERP. Since I know that is probably not correct, I was wondering if someone can give me insight into what my keyword usage frequency should be so I can rank my articles better.