Ep 6: Yoast – Building Smarter SEO Tools with Manuel Augustin & Marina Koleva

In this episode, Sonia chats to Yoast team members Marina Koleva & Manuel Augustin on the use linguistics, AI, and multilingual insights to shape the future of SEO

In this episode of Working with Languages, host Sonia speaks with Marina Koleva (linguist and developer) and Manuel Augustin (product owner and plugin release lead) from Yoast. Together, they explore how linguistics, technology, and SEO intersect. From mastering multiple languages to building features in the Yoast SEO plugin, Marina and Manuel share insights into how language expertise drives better search optimization tools. They also discuss the challenges of adding new languages like Japanese to the plugin, the role of AI in SEO, and why human editing is still essential for high-quality online content.

Key Takeaways

Language knowledge doesn’t need to be perfect to be useful – even partial familiarity with a language can open career opportunities and problem-solving approaches.
AI enhances SEO tools by suggesting improvements like optimized titles, but still requires a human eye for originality, nuance, and tone.
Working with languages builds adaptability – the more you get used to linguistic “discomfort,” the easier it becomes to tackle new systems.
Not all AI replaces traditional methods – rule-based processing remains essential, especially in areas like counting words and sentence structure.
Human creativity remains central to SEO – automation assists, but originality and cultural context still define high-quality, optimized content.

Episode Highlights

05:09 – Marina and Manuel reveal how they began their careers at Yoast and the role of languages in joining a leading SEO company.

10:49 – Marina explains how the Yoast SEO plugin integrates AI to recommend optimized titles directly in WordPress.

20:10 – Manuel and Marina break down the linguistic and technical hurdles of supporting Japanese in an SEO tool.

28:45 – The guests share their thoughts on the future of SEO, including the evolving balance between AI-driven suggestions and human editing.

About Manuel, Marina and Yoast

Manuel and Marina both work at Yoast on their multilingual SEO plugin for WordPress and other website building platforms. They are linguists and also developers – as they tell us in this conversations, at Yoast all linguists need to know about web development, and all developers need to know a bit about languages and linguistics.

Connect with Manuel, Marina and Yoast

Yoast website: yoast.com
Manuel on LinkedIn: Manuel Aaugustin
Marina’ profile on Yoast: Marina Koleva

About Sonia Kampshoff

Sonia is an experienced, multilingual digital marketing consultant focusing on Google Ads and advertising on social media. She works with small and medium-sized companies, agencies and charities across ecommerce and lead generation accounts, supporting them from strategy and planning all the way through optimisation and management.

Languages are integral to her identity and career, so much so that in September 2025 she created and hosts this podcast, telling stories of people who merge their language skills with the work they do – and inspiring many more to learn languages and build a career on these valuable soft skills.