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.

About the Guest

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.

Episode Links

• Yoast website: yoast.com
• Manuel on LinkedIn: Manuel Augustin
• Marina Koleva' profile on Yoast: Marina Koleva

Connect with Sonia

• LinkedIn: Sonia Kampshoff
• Instagram: WorkingWithLanguages
• Website: MorePerfect.Digital
• Email: [email protected]