Hi! I’m Joost de Valk, an internet entrepreneur from the Netherlands.
I’m the founder of Yoast. I have a long history in digital marketing as well as WordPress. I’m married to Marieke, who was Yoast’s CEO until we sold it to Newfold Digital in 2021. We have four children together and live in the Netherlands.
Marieke and I invest in companies that play at least partly in the digital space through our company Emilia Capital. We also run our own projects there, most notably Marieke’s Empowerwoment project. Next to that we are partners in WordPress business community platform Post Status, of which I’m the CTO.
I founded Yoast in 2010, after working in several different companies as a digital marketing consultant. I’ve worked on some of the biggest SEO projects in the world, like the site migration of the Guardian from .co.uk to theguardian.com.
In my spare time I can often be found teaching kids how to play soccer. In our holidays, Marieke and I love spending time in our Tuscan vacation home or travel 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.
If that’s something you’d be interested in? 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!
BERLIN, Germany
SMX Advanced Europe
I’ll be speaking at SMX Advanced in Berlin this fall.
munich, Germany
SEOktoberfest G50 Summit
I’ll once again be speaking at the world’s best (invite-only) SEO conference.
AMsterdam, The Netherlands
Emerce eDay
Inspiration event for the next year in digital.
Past Speaking Engagements
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is the most used SEO plugin for WordPress. With automatic XML sitemaps, the most sophisticated Schema API and lots and lots of technical SEO optimizations inside, your site deserves nothing less.
WordPress
I spend on average about 2 hours a week on WordPress core, mostly making small technical improvements to improve its SEO and performance.
WordProof
I’m an investor in and advisor for WordProof. The WordProof Timestamp Ecosystem empowers internet users and content creators with the tools to build a safer and more trustworthy internet. We’re building a trusted web, together!
