How to Build a GEO Team: Roles & Skills

The GEO talent market in 2026 looks like the SEO talent market in 2012 — demand is growing fast, supply is limited, and most companies are figuring it out on the fly. Building a GEO team isn’t about hiring AI experts. It’s about identifying people with the right foundational skills (SEO + content + data) and training them on GEO-specific techniques. If you want to go deeper, AI Overview Ranking Factors: Get Into Google AI breaks this down step by step.

Key takeaway: Start by training your best SEO person on GEO. Hire dedicated GEO roles when the program outgrows what existing staff can manage. The ideal GEO team member has technical SEO experience, content strategy skills, and comfort with data analysis. (We explore this further in AEO vs GEO vs AIO: Understanding the AI Search Terms.)

What Roles Does a GEO Team Need?

The role progression as your GEO program grows:

Stage 1-2: The GEO Specialist

This is your first dedicated GEO role. Responsibilities: This relates closely to what we cover in How AI Search is Changing Consumer Behavior in 2026.

• Technical GEO audit and implementation (schema, crawl access, rendering)
• Content optimization for AI citation (restructuring existing content)
• Citation monitoring and competitive analysis
• GEO strategy development and reporting
• A/B testing for citation optimization
• Collaboration with content team on GEO briefs

Required skills:

• 2+ years of technical SEO experience
• Proficiency with structured data (JSON-LD, schema.org)
• Content strategy and editorial judgment
• Analytics and data analysis (GA4, Search Console, Python is a plus)
• Understanding of how LLMs and AI search engines work
• Ability to write clear, structured content

Stage 3-4: GEO Manager

As the program scales, you need a manager who can set strategy, manage team members, and report to leadership. For more on this, see our guide to Question-Style Headings That AI Engines Pull.

Additional responsibilities beyond Specialist: Our Landing Pages for AI-Referred Visitors guide covers this in detail.

• GEO program strategy and OKR setting
• Team hiring, training, and management
• Budget management and ROI reporting
• Cross-functional collaboration (product, engineering, content, marketing)
• Vendor/tool evaluation and management
• Industry trend monitoring and adaptation

Required skills (in addition to Specialist):

• 5+ years of SEO/content marketing experience
• 1+ year of direct GEO experience
• People management experience
• Budget management and ROI modeling
• Stakeholder communication and presentation
• Strategic thinking and planning

Stage 5: Head of GEO / VP AI Search

Enterprise role overseeing all AI search strategy across the organization. As we discuss in How to Run a GEO Competitor Analysis, this is a critical factor.

Responsibilities:

• Company-wide AI search strategy
• Multi-team coordination
• Executive reporting and board presentations
• Industry thought leadership
• Technology and partnership decisions
• Long-term roadmap (12-24 months)

How Do You Evaluate GEO Candidates?

Interview framework:

GEO-specific interview questions:

1. “What’s the difference between optimizing for Google rankings and optimizing for AI citations?”
2. “If a page ranks #1 on Google but isn’t cited by AI engines, what would you investigate?”
3. “How would you set up a GEO A/B test? What would you test first?”
4. “Walk me through how you’d build a citation monitoring system.”
5. “What schema types are most important for AI citation, and why?”
6. “How do you measure the ROI of GEO?”

Red flags in candidates:

• Can’t explain how AI search differs from traditional search
• No technical SEO background (GEO without tech skills is superficial)
• Only focused on content creation, not measurement
• Claims to be a “GEO expert” with no measurable results to show
• Can’t explain schema markup or structured data

Green flags:

• Has tracked and improved AI citation rates for real sites
• Can write Python scripts for monitoring/analysis (or is willing to learn)
• Understands both SEO and GEO as complementary
• Data-driven decision-making approach
• Keeps up with AI search platform changes

How Do You Train Existing Staff on GEO?

GEO training curriculum (4 weeks):

Week 1: Foundations

• How AI search engines work (retrieval, generation, citation)
• GEO vs. SEO vs. AEO: differences and overlaps
• AI crawler identification and access management
• Hands-on: audit 3 pages for AI readiness

Week 2: Technical GEO

• Schema markup for AI: Article, FAQPage, HowTo, Product
• Content structure for AI extraction (headings, tables, definitions)
• JavaScript rendering implications for AI crawlers
• Hands-on: implement schema on 5 pages

Week 3: Content Optimization

• Writing citable content (atomic paragraphs, definition statements)
• FAQ creation and optimization
• Comparison table design
• Content update strategy for freshness
• Hands-on: optimize 3 existing pages for GEO

Week 4: Measurement and Strategy

• Setting up citation monitoring
• Building a GEO dashboard
• A/B testing for GEO
• GEO strategy development
• Hands-on: run a citation audit and create a report

Post-training:

• Weekly team review of citation data
• Monthly GEO knowledge sharing sessions
• Quarterly skill assessments
• Access to industry resources (conferences, newsletters, communities)

What Does a Mature GEO Team Structure Look Like?

Small company (1-2 people):

GEO Specialist (full-time)
├── Technical audit and implementation
├── Content optimization (5-10 pages/month)
├── Citation monitoring and reporting
└── Strategy and planning

Mid-size company (3-5 people):

GEO Manager
├── GEO Content Specialist
│   ├── Content optimization
│   ├── New content creation
│   └── [Content calendar](/blog/content-calendar-seo-geo) management
├── GEO Technical Specialist
│   ├── Schema implementation
│   ├── Technical monitoring
│   └── Tool/automation development
└── Shared: Data Analyst
    ├── Citation analytics
    ├── Dashboard maintenance
    └── A/B test analysis

Enterprise (7+ people):

Head of GEO / VP AI Search
├── GEO Strategy Manager
│   ├── GEO Content Team Lead
│   │   ├── 2-3 Content Optimizers
│   │   └── 1-2 Content Creators
│   └── GEO Technical Lead
│       ├── 1-2 Technical Specialists
│       └── Automation Engineer
├── GEO Analytics Manager
│   ├── Citation Data Analyst
│   └── Reporting Specialist
└── GEO Research Specialist
    ├── Competitive intelligence
    └── AI search trend analysis

Cross-functional collaboration:

GEO doesn’t exist in a silo. The team needs regular collaboration with: If you want to go deeper, robots.txt for AI Crawlers — Complete Setup Guide breaks this down step by step.

• SEO team: Alignment on keyword strategy, technical priorities
• Content team: GEO briefs, editorial calendar integration
• Product/Engineering: Schema implementation, site speed, rendering
• Marketing leadership: Strategy alignment, budget, reporting

The best GEO teams are embedded within the broader marketing/growth organization, not isolated as a separate unit. GEO is an evolution of SEO, and the teams should evolve together. (We explore this further in Website Migration SEO Checklist (2026).)