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Edwin Toonen

Edwin is an experienced strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he worked for a web design magazine, where he learned how to create great content.

You can find Edwin on: Twitter

In 2006, after working full time in a bookstore for many years, I boldly decided to return to school. I wanted to combine my love for writing with the lure of the internet, so I picked Digital Communication at the HAN University of Applied Sciences in Arnhem. Four years later, I graduated with honors.

In the meantime, I started working for The Netherlands’ largest monthly magazine on web design and development. As a managing editor, I wrote, edited, and translated hundreds of articles on this fascinating subject. I also made sure the magazine’s day-to-day operations went according to plan.

At Yoast, I do much of the same work, except on a bigger scale. As a content specialist, I am responsible for delivering quality content that is engaging and optimal.

In my spare time, I love rocking my 1972 Fender Precision bass with my band (Every Other Me), fiddling about with synthesizers, listening to music, watching an endless stream of – classic – movies, taking long cycling trips, and enjoying life with my sons and girlfriend.

Edwin

7 common technical ecommerce SEO mistakes to prevent

11 September 2024 | 2 Comments Edwin Toonen

Ecommerce mistakes are as common as shopping carts filled to the brim during a Black Friday sale. Why is that, you ask? Well, the ecommerce world is complex. It’s easy for online retailers to trip over unexpected — but also quite common — hurdles. But fear not! Identifying and correcting these technical SEO mistakes helps […]

Read: "7 common technical ecommerce SEO mistakes to prevent"
7 common technical ecommerce SEO mistakes to prevent

Black Friday & holiday season SEO 2024: 10 tips to start preparing!

28 August 2024 Edwin Toonen

The summer has just ended. Should you already start preparing for Black Friday and the holiday season? Yes! They’re the biggest sales of the year, and ranking in Google is something you take time to do. It’s never too early to start getting your deals ready. So, if you have an online shop or an […]

Read: "Black Friday & holiday season SEO 2024: 10 tips to start preparing!"
Black Friday & holiday season SEO 2024: 10 tips to start preparing!

Mastering Google Trends to improve your SEO

22 August 2024 Edwin Toonen

Staying on top of things and beating your competitors means staying on top of trends and consumer behavior. Over the years, Google quietly developed a tool that has become a staple in many SEO toolkits: Google Trends. This tool provides invaluable insights into what people are searching for. The latest update of Google Trends brings […]

Read: "Mastering Google Trends to improve your SEO"
Mastering Google Trends to improve your SEO

Elevating author and publisher entities in SEO

25 July 2024 | 2 Comments Edwin Toonen

The SEO community has been buzzing following the release of internal Google documents, revealing more details about how author and publisher entities influence search rankings. These insights help you strategically optimize your author and publisher profiles. This article will explore these entities and give you some actionable strategies to incorporate their optimization into your existing […]

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Elevating author and publisher entities in SEO

What is Search Experience Optimization (SXO)?

18 July 2024 | 1 Comment Edwin Toonen

Today, you have to think beyond simply ranking high on search engines. Users want more than just a simple website visit. Your visitors and customers are looking for an engaging experience. Search Experience Optimization (SXO) can help provide this. This merges SEO with user-centric design to help you attract visitors and keep them engaged. The […]

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What is Search Experience Optimization (SXO)?

Curbing AI creativity: How to provide effective guardrails

AI models can generate astonishingly creative content. However, their outputs can become cliched, unpredictable, and problematic without proper guardrails. How can we harness their potential while maintaining control? In this article, we’ll show you what you can do to provide guardrails for your AI chatbot. Thanks to these techniques, you can ensure its creative outputs […]

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Curbing AI creativity: How to provide effective guardrails

Google and Bing stress the importance of lastmod in XML sitemaps

18 June 2024 | 2 Comments Edwin Toonen

XML sitemaps are essential for every site’s SEO strategy and are a big part of our core Yoast SEO product. Both Google and Bing have recently renewed emphasis on properly using the lastmod (last modified) tag in XML sitemaps. The leading search engines now advise site owners to use this feature properly for better crawling […]

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Google and Bing stress the importance of lastmod in XML sitemaps



Using the focus keyphrase for product pages in Yoast SEO

28 May 2024 Edwin Toonen

SEO is crucial for any online store. One key aspect that Yoast SEO needs to help you improve the SEO of your product pages is a focus keyphrase. This guide will help you find and fill in the proper focus keyphrase using Yoast SEO. Understanding the focus keyphrase The focus keyphrase is the main keyword […]

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Using the focus keyphrase for product pages in Yoast SEO