Two different jobs, one seed keyword
Type "tree removal" into KeywordScope and you'll get the same base list every time: questions, prepositions, comparisons, and A-Z suggestions built off that seed. What changes is which of those results are actually worth targeting, and that depends entirely on whether the site behind them serves one metro area or the whole country.
Local intent looks like a question with a place baked in
Local-intent keywords carry geography inside the phrase itself, or imply it through urgency: "tree removal near me," "emergency tree removal [city]," "how much does tree removal cost in [state]." These convert well for a business that serves a defined radius, because the searcher has already filtered for proximity before they click. In KeywordScope's question and preposition results, these show up as the ones where the answer would change city to city — pricing, licensing, permit requirements, response time.
National intent looks like a category with no place attached
"Best tree removal equipment," "how to become a certified arborist," "tree removal vs tree trimming" — none of these anchor to a location, because the answer doesn't change based on where the searcher is. These are the keywords worth targeting if the site behind them is itself national in scope: a tool, a marketplace, an information resource, or a company like this one that sells to businesses across the country rather than homeowners in one metro.
Why mixing the two on one page hurts both
A single page trying to rank for "tree removal near me" and "how to become a certified arborist" satisfies neither search intent well. Google and AI answer engines read that ambiguity as a weaker signal for both. The fix isn't avoiding one or the other — it's routing them to separate pages, or separate sites, that are each unambiguously one or the other. A local trade business builds city pages for the local set. A national tool or resource builds topic pages for the national set. Trying to do both on the same page is the most common way we see a keyword strategy quietly fail.
How to tell which bucket a KeywordScope result belongs in
Ask one question of each result: does the correct answer change if the searcher is in a different city? If yes, it's local — route it to a city or service-area page with real local facts (address, service radius, local reviews). If no, it's national — route it to an evergreen resource page that doesn't reference a specific place at all. Skip anything in between; those tend to be low-volume and don't convert cleanly for either strategy.