$re = '/(?:\G(?!\A)|:keyword_start:\s)(?:(?!:keyword_end:)\S+\s)*+\K\s+/';
$str = 'This is a teststring ... :keyword_start: this is the content with double spaces :keyword_end: more text ... :keyword_start: this is the second content with double spaces :keyword_end: ... more tex';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php