About Eikhart and Ramon Eijkemans: Mission. History. Accomplishments. Or at least an honest attempt to make some sense of it.

During my study of history I got hooked. I got fascinated by the possibilities of internet. By hypertext. And especially the way hypertext cab structure things in an associatieve manner, instead of the traditional hierarchical way.

My doctorate was about the Wisdom of Crowds, and how to use that as a means to create a crowd-sourced tagging system for historical archives (OCR-scanning for medieval texts is kind of a problem). I was inspired by Wikipedia and Del.icio.us.

An associatieve tagging system to replace (or complement) more traditional, hierarchical ordened archive inventories. Internet tech is the best way to do this!

I was already working as a freelance web developer at the time. Some websites needed to be "optimised". So the CMS I had made myself got redirects, and meta-tags.

And then I saw a job offer at Onetomarket, one of the principal Search marketing Agencies in the Netherlands at that time. I called an old buddy who started working there just one month before (Joost de Valk) and asked him: "is this something for me?" YES! He said, totally! Go for it!

And the rest is history :)

I worked there for 3,5 years, and learned a lot. But at one point, I decided it was time to move on, and see the in-house side of things.

After that, I started working as an "Inhouse SEO" specialist at Ilse Media (later Sanoma Media) in Amsterdam. I commuted five days a week from Nijmegen to Amsterdam. That was still doable, without children ;0 It was fun! There, I got to work with some really great titles (NU.nl, Kieskeurig, Startpagina, to name a few) and met a lot of people, but...

... the entrepreneurial spirit really started to stir. So I made an arrangement with my then manager Roderick Martens (now with Makerstreet) that I would gradually scale down and at the same time train someone in the SEO mysteries. He would take over from me. That person turned out to be Marcel van Etten.

With Marcel as a competent successor at (by then) Sanoma, I was able to explore freelancing.

Ten years as a freelancer... Got to work on all sorts of projects. Both domestically and internationally (especially Belgium, Germany, England, and Italy). Met many people. For a few more years, I ran my own agency with, among others, my good friend Remco Westerik (DataSpinners). With holdings, an office, and a "flexible shell".

It was just incredibly fun, free, and educational!

But at some point, I wasn't sure anymore what I wanted to do... And then kids came... And we moved. And I decided to delve into one site, to work closer to home, work less, but it had to be with a really fun group!

Tropical years, Corona, and a very even-tempered, friendly, and large corporate: those were four very educational years! I really wanted to stay with Achmea, but... I saw an opportunity.

My previous experience running a (modest) agency made it clear to me: I have no ambition to be, to become, or to expand an agency. I prefer to continue freelancing. The way of working just suits me very well. And helping people with SEO is something I'm good at, and which simply makes me happy.

If I can help others with something I can offer: what's not to like?

But... with Autometa Studio I've also started something new; something that is needed: further professionalizing SEO. In the Netherlands, Belgium, and perhaps also Germany. And I don't mean professionalization in the sense of scrum processes and people management. But professionalization in execution.

A lot of the work that SEOs do is still manual. But much of that work is also repetitive. Especially the basics. Those annoying basic tasks: writing meta-texts, doing keyword research, setting up website architecture... It's precisely those tasks that Autometa Studio automates!

A great company with a great proposition. I'm curious to see where it goes.

Born and raised in and around Eindhoven, but moved to Nijmegen in 1997 to study history and philosophy (philosophy of science) at Radboud University Nijmegen.

Married. Children. Still living in the vicinity of Nijmegen.

In my free time, I like to watch movies, read non-fiction (especially history, geopolitics, psychology, and philosophy), and enjoy a beer with friends, family, and definitely with fellow enthusiasts! Feel free to see this as an invitation ;)