Hi! I’m Joost de Valk, an internet entrepreneur from the Netherlands.
I’m married to Marieke; we have four children and live in Wijchen, the Netherlands.
As the founder of Yoast, I have a long history in digital marketing and WordPress. My wife Marieke was Yoast’s co-founder and CEO (taking over from me) from January 2019 until we sold it to Newfold Digital in 2021.
Marieke and I invest in companies that play at least partly in the digital space (and often in WordPress) through our company Emilia Capital. Because of that, I’m on the board of companies like PatchStack and Atarim. We also run our own projects there; most recently, we’ve been working on Progress Planner.
I founded Yoast in 2010 after working as a digital marketing consultant in several different companies. I’ve worked on some of the biggest SEO projects in the world, like the Guardian’s site migration from .co.uk to theguardian.com.
In my spare time, I can often be found coaching kids at soccer at AWC, of which I’m also a board member. On holidays, Marieke and I love spending time in our Tuscan vacation home or traveling to other places in the world.
Work with me?
I reserve a portion of my time for digital / growth consultancy with companies we don’t have an investment in. I can advise you and your company on your (digital) product direction, your search/SEO strategy, and how you can leverage the open web for your company.
Would you be interested in that? Please fill out my contact form.
Speaking Engagements
I love the opportunity to speak at conferences all over the world.
Upcoming Gigs
Your Event Here!
Looking for a speaker? I’d love to hear about your event!
Past Speaking Engagements
Products I Work On
I’m no longer actively connected to Yoast, and no longer work on its products. I do, however, advise our Emilia Capital portfolio companies like Equalize Digital (who have Accessibility Checker), Atarim, Kanoppi and PersonalizeWP.
Accessibility Checker
I spend a few hours a week — and Ari from our Emilia Capital team spends considerably more — improving the Accessibility Checker plugin by Equalize Digital, which we’re a major investor in.
WordPress
I spend, on average, about 2-4 hours a week on WordPress core, mostly making small technical improvements to improve its SEO and performance.
