Freelance Associate Director, Performance Content (GEO / SEO)

Publicis Groupe ANZ; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 64,747 - 93,676; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off and flexible vacation

Work from anywhere program

Tuition assistance

Diversity and inclusion programs

Health and wellness reimbursements

Adoption and fertility support

Pet adoption support

Job summary

Starcom is seeking a Lead GEO/SEO acceleration role to improve discovery and visibility across search engines, AI answer engines, maps, directories, and local‑intent journeys. You will assess AI visibility, translate findings into practical recommendations, and coordinate activation with cross‑functional teams to drive measurable improvements in local search and entity signals.

The role focuses on enterprise brands and multi‑location programs, with emphasis on actionable, realistic steps that

Qualifications

• Assess AI visibility, search visibility, citations, sentiment, and source inclusion across priority brands, categories, products, services, and local markets.
• Translate GEO findings into practical SEO, content, technical, structured data, authority, entity, and local search recommendations.
• Support prompt and query strategy for priority consumer journeys, including category questions, brand comparisons, product discovery, service discovery, and "near me"/local‑intent searches.
• Partner with S&I, Commerce, PR, Social, Owned, and local market teams to coordinate AEO/GEO activation across the full search and discovery ecosystem.
• Identify priority content gaps, source gaps, entity gaps, technical gaps, authority gaps, and local visibility gaps.

Responsibilities

• GEO/SEO visibility assessment across priority brands and local markets.
• Priority prompt/query and intent map development.
• Owned content and technical SEO recommendations for local discovery.
• Citations/source gap analysis and local signals assessment.
• Local SEO and maps visibility opportunity assessment including GBP, directories, reviews, and local schema.
• Cross-channel AEO/GEO activation roadmap.
• Measurement and test-and-learn plan linked to visibility improvements.
• Ensure recommendations are actionable for internal teams.

Skills

SEO strategy

Local search

Enterprise brands

AI/search visibility

Cross-functional communication

Multi-location programs

Tools

Semrush

Screaming Frog

GSC

GA4

BrightLocal

Yext

Moz Local

Similarweb

Brandlight

Whitespark

Job description

Overview

Lead GEO/SEO acceleration by improving how brands, products, services, and locations are discovered, cited, understood, and represented across search engines, AI answer engines, generative platforms, maps, directories, and local‑intent journeys.

Responsibilities

• Assess AI visibility, search visibility, citations, sentiment, and source inclusion across priority brands, categories, products, services, and local markets.
• Translate GEO findings into practical SEO, content, technical, structured data, authority, entity, and local search recommendations.
• Support prompt and query strategy for priority consumer journeys, including category questions, brand comparisons, product discovery, service discovery, and "near me"/local‑intent searches.
• Partner with S&I, Commerce, PR, Social, Owned, and local market teams to coordinate AEO/GEO activation across the full search and discovery ecosystem.
• Identify priority content gaps, source gaps, entity gaps, technical gaps, authority gaps, and local visibility gaps.
• For MVH and other location‑sensitive businesses, assess Google Business Profiles, maps visibility, local landing pages, directory presence, review signals, NAP consistency, service‑area relevance, and local schema.
• Recommend improvements to owned content, location pages, service pages, structured data, FAQ content, reviews, internal linking, local authority signals, and source credibility.
• Help define test‑and‑learn plans that connect activation to measurable AI/search visibility improvement.
• Ensure recommendations are actionable and tied to what internal teams can realistically control.

Qualifications

• Strong SEO background, ideally with exposure to GEO, AEO, AI visibility, LLM citation analysis, or answer engine optimization.
• Deep understanding of technical SEO, content strategy, entity optimization, structured data, authority signals, search intent, and local SEO.
• Strong local search experience, including Google Business Profiles, maps visibility, location pages, local directories, reviews, NAP consistency, service‑area content, and local schema.
• Familiarity with tools such as Semrush, Profound, Brandlight, Similarweb, Screaming Frog, GSC, GA4, BrightLocal, Yext, Whitespark, Moz Local, or comparable platforms.
• Ability to translate complex AI/search visibility issues into clear, practical actions for non‑specialist stakeholders.
• Experience with enterprise brands, multi‑location businesses, service businesses, healthcare, veterinary, retail, or multi‑market programs preferred.

Key Outputs

• GEO/SEO visibility assessment.
• Priority prompt/query and intent map.
• Owned content and technical SEO recommendations.
• Citation/source gap analysis.
• Local SEO and maps visibility opportunity assessment.
• Google Business Profile, directory, reviews, and local schema recommendations.
• Cross‑channel AEO/GEO activation roadmap.
• Measurement and test‑and‑learn plan.

Equal Opportunity & EEO Statement

Starcom is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our employment decisions are made without regard to actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability, medical condition as defined by applicable state law, genetic information, marital status, military service and veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws and ordinances.

Benefits

• Paid Family Care for parents and caregivers for 12 weeks or more
• Monetary assistance and support for Adoption, Surrogacy and Fertility
• Monetary assistance and support for pet adoption
• Employee Assistance Programs and Health/Wellness/Comfort reimbursements to help you invest in your future and work/life balance
• Tuition Assistance
• Paid time off that includes Flexible Time off Vacation, Annual Sick Days, Volunteer Days, Holiday and Identity days, and more
• Matching Gifts programs
• Flexible working arrangements
• 'Work Your World’ Program encouraging employees to work from anywhere Publicis Groupe has an office for up to 6 weeks a year (based upon eligibility)
• Business Resource Groups that support multiple affinities and alliances

Compensation

Compensation Range: USD $46.81 - $67.29/Hourly. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time.

Additional Information

If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact [e-mail].

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.