The Christchurch search landscape carries some quirks that other New Zealand cities do not. Three groups of search queries produce traffic for service business ads but tend to lead nowhere because the searcher's intent does not match a paying customer.
1. Earthquake and EQC related queries
Christchurch continues to generate higher volume earthquake repair related searches than other parts of the country, more than fifteen years on from the Canterbury earthquakes. Searches like 'earthquake claim builder' or 'EQC repair quote' often come from homeowners or insurers researching claims rather than buyers in the market for a paid private job.
Negative terms to consider: earthquake, EQC, CERA, insurance claim. Add these unless your business deliberately competes for that work.
2. Red zone property queries
The Christchurch residential red zone, particularly along the Avon corridor, generated a sustained search pattern through the 2010s and into the 2020s. Most of the affected land is government held and not actively under private renovation, so queries that include 'red zone' rarely match a buyer ready to commission private work.
Negative terms to consider: red zone, residential red zone. Keep these in unless you specifically work on red zone associated jobs.
3. Lyttelton tunnel and port queries
The Lyttelton tunnel and the Port of Lyttelton generate consistent traffic information searches. Service businesses with broad match keywords in the Lyttelton area tend to pick up some of this traffic by accident. Negative terms to consider: tunnel, port, container, freight.
The universal additions
Beyond the Christchurch specific terms, every account benefits from the standard non buyer negatives: free, cheap, DIY, jobs, salary, apprenticeship, course, training, government, council, definition, meaning, examples, manual, used, second hand. That is a starting list of around twenty that takes five minutes to add and tightens the audience permanently.
How to maintain the list
Open the Search Terms report fortnightly. Sort by cost. Add the top irrelevant queries to the negatives list. Repeat. Over a few months the list grows into something that meaningfully reflects the niche.
Source: Book the call.
If you want a hand identifying Christchurch specific negatives from your live Search Terms report, the strategy call is 18 minutes.
Edited by a human.