Joost de Valk on Building Yoast SEO, Open Source Curiosity, and Life After The Plugin

An unexpected conversation with a WordPress entrepreneur who helped millions rank better on Google - and still prefers a quiet life in his small Dutch town.

In this episode of Seriously, BUD?, Joost de Valk reflects on the journey that led him from a small town in the Netherlands to becoming one of the most influential figures in the WordPress ecosystem. He discusses his upbringing in a family deeply engaged in social and community work, his early detour into theology studies, and how curiosity eventually pulled him into the world of technology and open-source development. Joost recounts how blogging about CSS and experimenting with WordPress sparked his interest in search engine optimization, ultimately leading to the creation of the Yoast SEO plugin at a time when WordPress users lacked strong SEO tools. After selling Yoast, he now focuses on investing in companies and developing Progress Planner, a project aimed at helping people continuously improve their websites. Throughout the conversation, Joost emphasizes that his success was less about a master plan and more about curiosity, timing, and collaboration, while staying grounded in family life and community involvement.