#39 – Marieke Van De Rakt & Taco Verdonschot on Yoast, the Past, Present and Future

On the podcast today we have Marieke Van De Rakt & Taco Verdonschot, and they’re both from Yoast SEO. I sat down with them both at WordCamp Europe and we talked about some of the recent changes that have taken place within the company. Having worked hard to build and maintain their company's reputation, they decided that it was time to steer the business in a new direction by selling it to Newfold Digital. We get into the reasons for this acquisition and the subsequent reshuffling of the management of the company. What were the details of that agreement, why did they join forces with Newfold Digital in particular, and how has the acquisition gone? We also talk about their longstanding commitment to contributing back to the WordPress project. Why have they done this and what benefits have they seen from this approach? Why do they bring so many of their team to WordCamps? Finally, we talk about their move into the Shopify space with their SaaS Shopify app.