Negative keywords for lawyers and law firms
Negative keywords for lawyers exclude searches that do not match the firm's practice areas, jurisdiction or service model. Good exclusions separate recruitment, legal education and document shopping from people seeking representation, while preserving valuable questions about cost and case options.
Evaluate the matter behind the words
Legal search terms often describe a problem before they name a practice area. Unpaid salary can be employment law demand. Tenant eviction help can belong to housing representation. An isolated word such as salary or tenant is therefore a poor universal negative for a law firm.
Start with the firm's intake criteria and advertised services. Match the query to the type of matter, jurisdiction and help the landing page offers. A mismatch in any of those areas can justify a narrow exclusion, but it should not suppress a different practice group that serves the query.
Distinguish legal representation from legal resources
Forms, templates and statute searches can indicate a person handling the matter alone. They can also appear early in a path that ends with hiring counsel. A query requesting only a downloadable document is stronger evidence of a mismatch than a broad legal question.
Read conversion quality alongside form fills and calls. A consultation request is not automatically a qualified matter, and a recent query may not have completed the intake cycle. Use the search terms report guide to review cost, conversion delay and the evidence behind each exclusion.
Candidate negatives for representation campaigns
This library assumes the campaign sells legal representation and does not recruit, teach courses or sell standalone documents. Shared rows apply only to campaigns with those assumptions. Ad group and campaign rows need practice-specific review. The match type column uses Google Ads terminology.
| Negative keyword | Match type | Level | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| lawyer job openings | Phrase | Shared list | Employment rather than representation |
| attorney job vacancies | Phrase | Shared list | Recruitment intent |
| paralegal jobs | Phrase | Shared list | Staff employment demand |
| legal secretary jobs | Phrase | Shared list | Administrative job search |
| law firm internship | Phrase | Shared list | Work placement request |
| legal assistant resume | Phrase | Shared list | Application material research |
| law school admissions | Phrase | Shared list | Professional education intent |
| law school tuition | Phrase | Shared list | Student cost research |
| bar exam preparation | Phrase | Shared list | Qualification training |
| bar exam practice questions | Phrase | Shared list | Exam resource demand |
| paralegal certification course | Phrase | Shared list | Professional course search |
| legal continuing education | Phrase | Shared list | Training rather than a legal matter |
| attorney salary survey | Phrase | Shared list | Professional compensation research |
| legal secretary salary | Phrase | Shared list | Career information request |
| law firm logo template | Phrase | Shared list | Marketing asset demand |
| legal business card template | Phrase | Shared list | Stationery rather than counsel |
| legal dictionary pdf | Exact | Campaign | Bare document resource request |
| law essay competition | Phrase | Campaign | Academic activity rather than representation |
| free divorce form pdf | Exact | Campaign | Standalone document request |
| diy will template | Exact | Campaign | Self-service document intent |
| court clerk job application | Phrase | Shared list | Court employment search |
| legal software login | Exact | Campaign | Existing software access intent |
| patent filing attorney | Exact | Ad group | Use only where the group excludes patent work |
| criminal defense lawyer | Exact | Ad group | Use only for a separate noncriminal practice group |
The table deliberately avoids single-word exclusions such as court, claim, injury and free. Those words can appear in high-intent searches for counsel. A shared list should represent a common service boundary, not an assumption that a word always indicates an unqualified person.
Keep consultation, fees and case research
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Free consultation is valuable when the firm offers one, even though representation is paid. No win no fee and contingency fee require the same offer check. Keep them only where the advertised arrangement is accurate and allowed, rather than excluding them automatically because they contain cost-sensitive language.
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Keep cost and fees for practice areas where prospective clients reasonably need that information before contacting the firm. A person comparing divorce lawyer fees may be ready to hire. An exclusion against fees can prevent the firm from reaching precisely that question.
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Settlement, appeal, lawsuit, compensation and rights can identify relevant matters. The fact that a query asks a question does not make it a training query. Review the full wording and the likely next action. The negative keywords example guide shows how a broad salary exclusion can block a valid wage claim.
Jurisdiction needs a precise service decision
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A searcher in another state can still need help with a matter inside the firm's jurisdiction. Similarly, a location named in the query can describe an opposing party or event rather than the requested lawyer's office. Check intake boundaries before excluding a place name across the account.
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When a query clearly asks for representation the firm cannot provide, start with that complete request. The match types guide explains how exact can preserve modified searches while phrase can remove a larger sequence-based group.
Exclusions do not replace legal advertising review
Legal services do not have a special negative keyword matching rule. Ordinary platform matching applies. The firm's ads, claims and landing pages must still comply with applicable platform policies and professional advertising requirements in the jurisdictions where it operates.
Avoid treating exclusions as a compliance guarantee. A list cannot establish whether an outcome claim, fee statement or professional designation is permitted. Keep those reviews separate from the search relevance workflow.
Load practice-aware shared rules in NegativeKeywords
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Select the recruitment and education rows that apply to the intended representation campaigns, then add them to a NegativeKeywords shared list. Choose the destination accounts and eligible campaigns. Keep document-only queries and practice routing in smaller lists or local exclusions so the scope remains clear to the next reviewer.
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NegativeKeywords recommends match type and level, explains each flagged query and checks active keywords, products and converting queries for conflicts. Use approval mode to verify practice boundaries before applying a new library. Shared lists across accounts require Growth, Agency or Enterprise, and each platform receives only the controls it supports.
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Review new searches alongside intake feedback after publishing. Google and Microsoft negatives do not automatically cover close variants, so an observed plural or alternate form may require its own rule. When a practice area changes, use the audit log to identify inherited exclusions and one-click undo to reverse unsuitable additions.
Find queries outside the matters you accept
Open the browser demo, describe the firm's services and paste a search terms export with cost and conversion fields. The demo never stores the report. Evaluate the reasons behind each proposal against the matters the firm accepts before carrying those exclusions into a live campaign.