KARACHI – Pakistan just experienced a revolutionary step towards the development in digital industry. This step came in the shape of the PDA or Pakistan Digital Awards. Held in Karachi, these are the first awards of their kind to have been introduced in Pakistan in 2017.
A team of very diligent workers worked on this project to make it a success. The whole idea behind the awards was to celebrate the growing talent of our digital industry. Furthermore, the awards also wanted to encourage more people to be a part of this industry and contribute to its development. Yayvo.com managed to bag a couple of awards. The most eminent of them was the Best SEO Campaign.
We managed to get out hands with Mehmood Memon, Head of SEO at Yayvo.com, and ask him about their whole journey.
How valuable are these Digi Awards?
“I think they are the most pronounced step towards betterment and encouragement of digital industry in the country. The hold a high rank amongst all the ecommerce companies, agencies and individuals that are working in the digital industry.
“The actors, directors, producers and writers all get their awards. There are so many award shows by LUX, Hum TV and even Q Mobile to celebrate their success. These awards are held in honour and recognition of the media and film industry.
“The digital industry often goes unnoticed. So, it is a relief that someone is also trying to make an effort to put us in the limelight.”
Did you expect to win the awards?
“I might sound a bit over confident if I say that I did. Truth be told, we were quite hopeful that we will win. We gave our time and energy to this campaign so it would have been a disappointment if we failed to bag an award in this particular category.”
Do you feel accomplished?
“Of course, I do. We all do. We worked really hard for this and we are grateful and pleased to have this award to our name. I could not be any happier.”
What steps did you take to achieve this win?
“We went through a long and tedious process. We had to find a plan first. There was a lot of looking around for people and partners and so much more. The thing with e-commerce is that it is probably the only online forum which easily attracts customers. People have become so busy in their lives. They find it more convenient to shop online so getting traffic is not the hardest task in our field.
“For us, the harder tasks are making sure the product is available at all time and that it gets delivered to the customers through reliable sources. For that, we had very helpful partners who did their work to the best of their ability. We collaborated with a lot of stores to ensure that we always have a large selection of products for the customers to choose from.
“For delivery purposes, our parent company TCS. They are our delivering partners. They do their job perfectly and on time. We also did TCS Hazir (180 Minutes) delivery for Sana Safinaz in top cities.”
What steps do you think digital industry needs to take to ensure exponential growth?
“There are a lot of things you need to focus on when you are in this industry. The most important one is SEO. It is like a magnet that attracts your customers and potential buyers. The thing you need to keep in mind is that you have to use keywords and phrases that people are already searching for. SEO is basically a set of regulations that you have to follow to ensure that you have high search engine rankings.
“The more SEO friendly your content is, the more chances it has of being high on Google rankings. If you top the charts you are definitely more likely to have more sales and flourish.”
What is SEO in Marketing?
“SEO in Marketing the process of getting recognised and increasing visibility through unpaid channels. You have to make your business become more visible in organic search engines.
“This is a very important element of online business. Not everyone can afford paid marketing. If you are a new business or if you are an entrepreneur who is just setting up his business, you cannot have the funds to pay for marketing. In this scenario, organic marketing is very important.
“You have to focus on both the technical and creative aspects of this type of SEO marketing. It includes improving your content for marketing and learning how to boost the visibility using technology. Technologically, you need to make your website more users friendly. It needs to be faster first of all. Users must not have to wait for loading because it causes frustration and unnecessary agitation. Secondly, it must be easy to use. Customers do not want to waste their time navigating through a website that looks more like a maze.
“Creatively, you have to start campaigns to get your customers more involved. Do different campaigns that would attract your potential buyers. Using social media to bring engaging content to your audience is a good and basic step to start with. Engage with your buyers and learn their requirements.
“SEO is extremely important. I cannot stress on it’s importance enough. You see when a person is searching for something; they click on the first 5 links on average. So, it is absolutely essential that you get your website or your ecommerce business site on one of these 5 slots. If the Ecommerce industry wants to do good, they will have to follow SEO in all their relevant fields from marketing to their website content. Without it, development of the industry is highly unlikely.”
Do you have any last words to add?
“I would like to say that I am really grateful for all the efforts of my team and my manager, Syed Waqas Pervez. I am pretty sure that our company will soon be the number one online eCommerce stores in Pakistan.”
