The complete negative keyword list for carpet cleaners

How negative keywords and match types work in Google Ads

A negative keyword tells Google not to show your ad on certain searches. Google's help page on negative keywords says they "let you exclude search terms from your campaigns." That matters for carpet cleaners, because "carpet cleaner" can mean your company or a machine on a store shelf. For the wider picture, see our guide to paid advertising for carpet cleaners.

Negatives follow different rules than the keywords you bid on. Google says negative keywords "won't match to close variants or other expansions," so you have to add synonyms and singular or plural versions yourself. A negative for job will not block jobs, which is why the list below spells out both.

Broad match is the default for negatives. Phrase match goes in quotes and exact match goes in square brackets, as Google's guide to keyword match types shows.

Use broad negatives for single words that never come from a buyer, such as hiring. Use phrase negatives when the words are fine alone but wrong together. Save exact negatives for one full search you want to drop without blocking longer versions of it.

The carpet cleaning negative keyword list, ready to paste

When you add negatives, Google asks you to "Add your keywords, one per line," so each line below is one keyword. Lines without symbols go in as broad match, and lines in quotes go in as phrase match. Read each group before you paste it, because a word that is junk for one company can be a buyer for another.

Jobs and careers

Job seekers type the same words your customers use, plus a job word. These lines are safe as broad negatives for nearly every company.

• job
• jobs
• hiring
• career
• careers
• salary
• wages
• employment
• indeed
• apprentice
• "how much do carpet cleaners make"

DIY and how-to

These searches come from people trying to clean the carpet themselves. Watch the how to line, because it also blocks a search like how to choose a carpet cleaner. Drop it if you would rather pay for those.

• diy
• "how to"
• homemade
• recipe
• vinegar
• "baking soda"
• "hydrogen peroxide"
• yourself
• "home remedy"
• hack
• hacks

Machine rental and purchase

This group matters most for carpet cleaners, because the machine and the service share a name.

• rent
• rental
• rentals
• renting
• "rug doctor"
• bissell
• hoover
• "home depot"
• walmart
• lowes
• "for sale"
• buy
• used
• shampooer
• shampooers
• "best carpet cleaner"
• "carpet cleaner machine"
• "carpet cleaning machine"
• extractor
• parts
• manual

Products and chemicals

These searches come from people buying something to put in a bottle or a machine. Leave shampooing off the list, since some homeowners still call your service carpet shampooing. A broad negative on shampoo will not block that word, because negatives don't match variants.

• shampoo
• solution
• solutions
• detergent
• spray
• "stain remover"
• "enzyme cleaner"
• "spot cleaner"
• "pre spray"
• wholesale
• "carpet cleaning chemicals"

Training and certification

Course and class searches come from people getting into the trade. Use phrase negatives here so you don't block homeowners looking for a certified company. Our paid ads service lists negatives for DIY, machine rentals and jobs as part of the Google Search work we do.

• "carpet cleaning course"
• "carpet cleaning class"
• "carpet cleaning training"
• "iicrc class"
• "iicrc course"
• "iicrc test"
• "certification course"
• "start a carpet cleaning business"
• "carpet cleaning franchise"
• "carpet cleaning business for sale"

Services you don't offer, and what to do about free and cheap

This group depends on your service menu. A negative for upholstery would be a mistake for a company that does upholstery cleaning, so paste only the lines for work you turn down. If you do offer a service on this list, give it its own ad group and a page that matches the search. Our guide to carpet cleaning websites covers the page side.

• "carpet installation"
• "carpet store"
• flooring
• "car detailing"
• "auto detailing"
• "car interior"
• "air duct"
• "dryer vent"
• "window cleaning"
• "house cleaning"
• "maid service"
• "pressure washing"
• "dry cleaning"
• "water damage"
• mold
• upholstery
• "tile and grout"
• "area rug"

Free and cheap searches

Free and cheap are a judgment call. A search for free carpet cleaning is rarely a paying customer, but a search for a free estimate may come from someone ready to book. A search for cheap carpet cleaning can come from a bargain hunter or from a real customer on a budget.

If you compete on price, keep the cheap searches. If they don't book for you, block them with phrase negatives like these:

• "free carpet cleaning"
• "free carpet cleaner"
• "cheap carpet cleaning"
• "cheapest carpet cleaning"
• coupon
• coupons

Don't add free, price or prices as broad negatives on their own. A broad negative on prices would block a search like carpet cleaning prices near me, and a person comparing prices may be close to booking.

Where to add negative keywords in your Google Ads account

You can add negatives in three places. A shared negative keyword list is the best home for most of this list, because Google says "you can apply the list to multiple campaigns at once." Google allows up to 5,000 negatives in each list and up to 20 lists in an account.

Be careful at the account level. Those negatives apply to every eligible campaign, including one built to target that word. Keep your own company name out of the account-level list if you run a campaign on your name.

Google also says to "Make sure that your negative keywords don't overlap with your regular keywords." If you bid on pet odor removal for your pet odor work, a broad negative on odor would stop that keyword from showing.

How to review the search terms report each month

No starting list catches everything, and the search terms report is where new negatives come from. Google says you use it "to know how your ads performed when triggered by actual searches within the Search Network." Our paid ads guide says to review search terms weekly. Do that while a campaign is new, then hold a full review at least once a month.

1. In Google Ads, select Campaigns, open Insights and reports, and choose Search terms.
2. Set the date range to the last month and sort by cost, so the searches that spent the most are at the top.
3. Read every search that spent money. Mark the ones that could never book a cleaning, such as a job seeker, a machine, a product or a service you don't do.
4. Check the boxes next to those searches and click Add as negative keyword.
5. Change the match type. Google says to "use the appropriate symbols": quotes for phrase match, and no symbols for broad match. Google adds negatives from this report as exact match by default, which blocks only that one search. If the search shows a pattern, such as a new machine brand, add the key word as broad or phrase instead.
6. Save the terms to your shared negative keyword list instead of one ad group, so every campaign gets the benefit.
7. Scan the list for words that now block a service you sell, such as upholstery after you add it, and remove them.

The report will not show every search. Google says "Some search terms that don't have enough query activity are omitted" to protect privacy. That is one more reason to block patterns with broad and phrase negatives instead of chasing exact searches one at a time.

Negatives cut the junk, but they don't tell you which clicks booked. Pair this review with tracking which ad clicks become booked jobs, so you judge Search by cost per booked job.

What can you do when another company bids on your business name?

If you search your company name, you may see an ad from a competitor or a lead marketplace above your own listing. For what the trademark policy allows, see our guide to paid advertising for carpet cleaners.

Negative keywords won't stop this, because they only work inside your own account. Here is what you can do in Google Ads.

1. Add your company name as a negative at the campaign level, not the account level. If you run a campaign on your own name, put that negative only in your other campaigns. An account-level negative would block your brand campaign too.
2. Check auction insights on your brand campaign. Google says the auction insights report "lets you compare your performance with other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions," with measures such as overlap rate and outranking share.