I studied Sociology and Communication Sciences at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. I obtained my PhD in Social Sciences in January 2011. Since then, I worked as a researcher as well as a teacher at multiple universities. Since the beginning of Yoast, I have been involved in the company. As of September 2013, I gave up my position at the university and decided to focus solely on my activities at Yoast.
I was the CEO of Yoast from January 2019 until November 2021. Now, I am the CMO, focussing on all things marketing at Yoast.
I’m married to Joost de Valk and we have four amazing children together.
You’re probably familiar with SEO, but what do we mean by sustainable SEO? Well, it’s all about spending your time on the right things in order to outrank competitions in the search engines! But how do you keep doing SEO in an efficient and successful way? How do you keep ranking in the long run? If you’re […]
Read: "Sustainable SEO: How to focus on a lasting SEO strategy"
The new year has just begun. Maybe you’ve promised yourself that you’re going to really make an effort in SEO this year. Perhaps you’ve not been giving your site the proper SEO love it deserves and over time your rankings have been going down. Or maybe you’ve noticed a decrease in organic traffic and want […]
Read: "How to pick up SEO after you’ve neglected your site"
A blog is a great marketing tool. It might feel like an ‘old-school thing’, but it’s still a really strong SEO tool in 2022. Google just loves great content! So if you’re thinking about starting a blog, I only have one thing to say: go for it! Let’s make 2022 the year in which you […]
Read: "How to start a blog"
What a year it has been! Big things have happened within Yoast the company as well as in our Yoast SEO plugin. In this post, I look back at a wonderfully exciting 2021! In addition, I have asked Thijs de Valk – our brand new CEO – all kinds of questions to shine his light […]
Read: "Looking back at Yoast in 2021"
Using transition words in your writing can help you enhance the readability of your content. These words help your text flow and show readers the relationship between phrases and paragraphs. That’s why the readability checks in Yoast SEO provide feedback on your use of transition words. But what are they exactly? Why are they so […]
Read: "Transition words: why and how to use them"
Paragraphs? Isn’t that what you get when you insert a white space after a bunch of sentences? Do you need to think about where to put that whitespace? Or can you just put one in whenever you feel like it? Well, writing correct and clear paragraphs is really important for the readability of a text. […]
Read: "How to write clear and SEO-friendly paragraphs"
Google loves amazing content! We all know that, right? And what is THE most important part of a post or article? That very first paragraph! So, you should give that first paragraph some extra SEO love! The introduction of an article is of key importance to tell your audience what your story is about. Moreover, for Google, the introduction of a post is really important as well. But why is the […]
Read: "How to write an SEO-friendly introduction for a blog post"
You write these beautiful blog posts. You put a lot of effort into them. However, it can take a while for Google to pick up on your new blog posts and show them in the search results. So is there any way to speed up that process? Well, links to your post can help. It […]
Read: "Why you should add links to a new post as soon as possible"
In order for a website to be successful, you need to have traffic going to it. You need an audience! That’s why SEO is so very important. Unfortunately, a lot of aspects of SEO are hard work. Kind of boring even. And although these SEO tasks can be boring, your website needs you to execute them. Your website needs SEO love. I am […]
Read: "Your website needs SEO maintenance!"
It’s Cyber Monday, and the Yoast Black Friday deals are still going strong! Did you already claim your 30% discount on any of the Yoast products? If not, hurry! Your time is running out! Ready to go green? Do you want those red bullets to turn all green and outrank your competitors in Google? And are you looking to save […]
Read: "Cyber Monday sale at Yoast: 30% discount on all products!"
Marieke likes to talk about content strategy, readability, site structure, internal linking and company culture.
Content SEO
What to do to keep your website fit? In this talk, Marieke shows you 7 ways to improve the content SEO fitness of your website.
WordPress
Marieke was a guest on Stratabeat's B2B Marketing Tech Talks, where she was interviewed by Stratabeat CEO Tom Shapiro. Watch the video to hear Marieke's thoughts on what's going on in the world of WordPress and SEO.
Internal linking, Site structure
In this talk, Marieke speaks about decluttering your site structure and how you can help customers and Google to understand websites better. She also explains how internal linking can help you outrank your competitors.
Copywriting, Internal linking
In this talk at WordCamp India, Marieke explains the importance of SEO copywriting and internal linking. After that, she shares some practical tips to start optimizing your website today!
Content SEO
[Dutch] At WordCamp NL, Marieke spoke about how to make a difference and stand out in the search results with content SEO.
Yoast SEO
Marieke was interviewed at WordCamp Finland (online), where she talked about her role at Yoast and shared more information about Yoast as a company.
Copywriting
In this talk, Marieke explains why people and search engines love copy that is easy to understand. She also covers 2020's Google trends and shares practical tips on how to improve your SEO copywriting for websites.
Yoast SEO
In this talk at WordCamp Philadelphia, Joost and Marieke shared some of the highs and lows in growing the company. How did they grow out to be where they are now? And why is WordPress so important to Yoast? This and more you'll see in the video!
Yoast SEO
Michelle Frechette interviewed Marieke for her WPCoffeeTalk Interview Series.
Site structure, Yoast Care fund, Yoast Diversity fund
In this talk, Marieke talks about the Yoast Diversity fund, the Yoast Care fund and why diversity is so important. In addition, she provides tips to improve your site structure.
Yoast Diversity fund, Yoast SEO
In front of the Yoast booth at WordCamp US, Marieke talks about the game "sjoelen", the Yoast Diversity fund, and shares tips for first time WordCamp attendees.
Diversity
At WordCamp Nijmegen, Marieke talked about prejudices, women and diversity. In the end she offers solutions that can contribute to more equality and inclusion within society!
Yoast SEO
Marieke was interviewed about the Yoast SEO WordPress plugin.
Site structure, Yoast Academy
Marieke and Jesse talk about how people process information and how you can help users by making your content clear and understandable to comprehend.
Internal linking, Site structure
At WordCamp Europe 2018, Marieke shared 3 tips on how to improve your site structure.
Open source
Marieke and Joost discuss why having a business model around open source projects is so important. Enjoy watching!
