I'm the CEO at Yoast. My main focus is on growing the company. I'm really passionate about maintaining open and friendly company culture. I'm also heavily involved in the marketing of Yoast and Yoast SEO Academy: the online courses platform I founded.
You can find Marieke on: TwitterLinkedinFacebookInstagramWordPress
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.
While I started as Chief Strategy Officer, I am now the CEO at Yoast. Together with Joost, Chaya, Omar and Thijs, I run Yoast. My main focus is on Academy; I develop products that help people to set up their own SEO strategy. My expertise is on SEO copywriting and site structure.
I’m married to Joost de Valk and we have four amazing children together.
Tags are very popular. On Instagram, we add tags to our posts to help people find them. However, using tags in that way on your WordPress site is devastating for your rankings. Even if you think that you’re not using a lot of them, make sure to read this post. In it, I’ll explain how […]
Read: "Why you should stop using tags"
The pandemic made it necessary for many businesses to focus on their online presence. But even way before that, we saw a steady rise in everything moving online. So, perhaps, you want to get on board and have decided to quickly set up a website for your business. Or, you’ve decided to revive your existing […]
Read: "What is SEO? An explanation for beginners"
SEO is a way to get more traffic to your website. By ranking high on Google, you attract more people to your site which leads to more sales and returning visitors. To get people to your site, you need to optimize your content for the right words. However, to increase your chances of ranking, convincing […]
Read: "What is search intent and why is it important for SEO?"
Focusing on long-tail keywords is a great SEO tactic. Long-tail keywords are keywords or keyphrases that are more specific – and usually longer – than more commonly used keywords. Long-tail keywords get less search traffic, but will usually have a higher conversion value, as they are more specific. They allow you to gradually get more traffic […]
Read: "Why focus on long-tail keywords?"
Is it worth your while making your text easy to read? Will it lead to higher rankings and more traffic? In simpler terms: Does readability rank? At Yoast, we’re convinced that writing in plain and understandable language can and will get you more visitors. We’ve even developed a tool to help people write readable text. […]
Read: "Does readability rank? On ease of reading and SEO"
To write appealing copy for your online audience, you need to know them. Who are those people that read your stories? Who are the people that search for the terms you want to be found for? Where do they come from? How old are they? What are they interested in? And how will you be […]
Read: "Online audience research: how to analyze your audience"
Ranking in search engines requires a website with flawless technical SEO and great, relevant content. Luckily, the Yoast SEO plugin takes care of (almost) everything on your WordPress site. Still, if you really want to get the most out of your website and keep outranking the competition, some basic knowledge of technical SEO is a must. […]
Read: "What is crawlability?"
There is lots and lots of content out there. Which makes it more difficult to grab and hold the attention of your audience. That’s why you need to make sure that the content on your pages and in your blog posts is new, fresh and above all: original! When you add content to your website, […]
Read: "The importance of original content for SEO"
If you own a local business, you want to dominate the local search results of your niche. Nowadays, that might be even more important. But how do you write content for your local business that’ll pop up in the search results? On what aspects should you focus? In this post, I’ll give tips you can […]
Read: "Local SEO content strategy: 5 tips to succeed online"
Big news for Yoast! We’re so incredibly happy to announce that we are joining Newfold Digital. Joining forces with this leading web presence solutions provider will enable Yoast to take SEO for everyone to the next level! We look forward to new possibilities to help even more people to improve their SEO. We believe that […]
Read: "Exciting news: Yoast joins Newfold Digital"
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!
