How are companies actually structuring their GEO teams? Trying to build one internally

I’ve hired for GEO roles at 5 companies. Here’s what I’ve learned:

Team structure options:

For your size (1-2 hire budget), I’d recommend:

1. GEO Lead/Specialist - Owns strategy, implementation, measurement
2. Support from existing teams - SEO team for technical, Content team for creation

The ideal GEO specialist profile:

• 3-5 years SEO experience (foundation)
• Content strategy background (understands information architecture)
• Analytically curious (wants to understand AI systems)
• Early adopter mentality (keeps up with AI developments)
• Cross-functional collaborator (GEO touches everything)

Don’t look for “GEO experts” - there aren’t many yet. Look for adaptable SEO/content people who are excited about AI.

SEO team lead perspective:

My recommendation: Don’t create a separate team.

Here’s what we did:

1. Upskilled existing SEO team on GEO fundamentals
2. Added GEO to everyone’s responsibilities (not just one person)
3. Hired 1 specialist as internal expert/coach

Why this works better than separate team:

• GEO and SEO overlap 70%+ in skills
• Avoids coordination/handoff issues
• Spreads knowledge across team
• More resilient (not dependent on one person)

Skill distribution we landed on:

Everyone does GEO. Specialist leads and coaches.

HR perspective on GEO hiring:

Compensation benchmarks (US market, 2025):

Comp considerations:

• Premium of 10-20% over traditional SEO roles
• High demand, limited supply driving prices up
• Remote work expectations standard

Career path clarity: Candidates want to know where GEO leads. We’ve mapped it as:

• GEO Specialist → Senior Specialist → GEO Lead → Head of SEO/GEO → VP Marketing

Retention factors:

• Learning opportunities (field is evolving fast)
• Access to tools and budget
• Visibility to leadership (GEO is hot topic)
• Meaningful work (not just tactics)

Made the agency → in-house move 6 months ago. Here’s what I’ve learned about team building:

What agencies do well:

• Broad exposure to different industries
• Tool expertise
• Process documentation
• Cross-client learnings

What in-house teams need to build:

• Deep business context
• Integration with other teams
• Long-term strategic thinking
• Executive communication skills

My team build-out:

Started as solo GEO hire. Here’s how I prioritized:

Quarter 1: Solo work

• Audit, strategy, quick wins
• Proved value to justify more headcount

Quarter 2: Added technical support

• Hired junior technical SEO to handle implementation
• I focused on strategy and content optimization

Quarter 3: Content integration

• Worked with content team, not hired separately
• Embedded GEO requirements in their process

Quarter 4: Considering analytics specialist

• Need deeper measurement capabilities
• Currently bottleneck is proving ROI

Start small, prove value, grow.

Enterprise perspective (might be overkill for your size, but useful context):

Our GEO team structure (8 people):

Head of GEO
├── GEO Strategy (2)
│   ├── Competitive intelligence
│   └── Platform strategy
├── Technical GEO (2)
│   ├── Schema & implementation
│   └── AI crawler optimization
├── Content GEO (2)
│   ├── Content optimization
│   └── Information architecture
└── Analytics (2)
    ├── Performance measurement
    └── Reporting & insights

What we’ve learned:

1. Cross-functional coordination is hardest part - GEO touches SEO, content, product, PR
2. Executive education is ongoing - Leadership needs constant updates on AI search landscape
3. Platform expertise is distributed - Different team members specialize in different AI platforms
4. Measurement is evolving - We rebuild metrics quarterly as we learn more

For mid-sized companies:

You don’t need all these roles. Start with:

• 1 strategist/generalist who can do a bit of everything
• Clear partnerships with SEO and content teams
• A measurement approach (even basic)

Scale as you prove value and complexity grows.

Common team building mistakes I see:

Mistake 1: Hiring too senior too fast

• You don’t need a “Head of GEO” if you have 1 person
• Hire doers first, then leaders

Mistake 2: Looking for unicorns

• Nobody has 5+ years of “GEO experience” - field is too new
• Look for adjacent skills + adaptability

Mistake 3: Isolating GEO from SEO

• Creates turf wars and duplication
• Integrate from the start

Mistake 4: Underinvesting in tools

• GEO without monitoring is guesswork
• Budget for proper tooling (Am I Cited, etc.)

Mistake 5: No learning budget

• Field is evolving rapidly
• Team needs time and resources to stay current

Right approach for mid-market:

• 1 GEO specialist embedded in SEO team
• Clear tool stack
• Training budget
• Regular learning time allocated

This discussion has been incredibly valuable. Here’s my hiring plan:

Immediate hire (Q1):

• GEO Specialist / Senior SEO with AI interest
• Embedded in existing SEO team
• $90-110K budget
• Focus: strategy, implementation, team upskilling

Support structure:

• Existing SEO team: technical implementation
• Content team: AI-friendly content creation
• New hire: strategy, monitoring, coaching

Upskilling plan:

• GEO training for entire SEO team
• Regular learning sessions
• Tool access for experimentation

Success metrics for new hire:

• 90 days: baseline audit, strategy documented
• 180 days: measurable AI visibility improvement
• 365 days: GEO integrated into team processes

Tool budget:

• Monitoring tool (Am I Cited): $200-500/month
• Learning resources: $2-3K/year

Thanks everyone for the insights. Feeling much more confident about this hire now.