When people think about all the different opportunities they can use to improve their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, “video” isn’t usually on that list.

On the Internet, there is no shortage of people who are willing to provide you with a laundry list of things that you can do to increase the search engine rankings for your domain. “Make sure you’re using as many relevant keywords as possible,” they’ll say. “Keep your articles within a range of 1000 to 2000 words.” “Make sure you’re publishing new content on a regular basis.” The list goes on and on.

The video doesn’t usually come up because people are still thinking about SEO from that “old school” mentality – one that was born in an era where the Internet was still primarily text-based. All of these types of tips are important, but video content is, too. In fact, there are six key ways that video content can improve your SEO efforts that are absolutely worth taking a closer look at.

1. Video Will Improve Your Bounce Rate

One of the major qualities that Google looks at when determining search engine rankings is your bounce rate. If people click on your page and leave almost immediately, context clues say that what you have to offer must not be very good. Therefore, the longer you can keep someone on your page, the higher that page will rank over time.

A video is a great way to check this critically important box, as roughly 65% of video viewers watch more than 3/4ths of a video. This is in stark contrast to text-based posts, where a significant number of people won’t even make it past the headline.

2. Video Creates More Engagement

Equally important to Google is engagement. It’s not enough that people are visiting your site, to begin with. People who stay for longer periods of time (as outlined above), visitors who consume a lot of content, and people who generally interact more with your site are all signs of high engagement, which are all strong indicators that your site’s rank should improve.

Experts agree that video content is a perfect chance to address this need, too, by allowing you to draw people in through emotional stories, entertaining segments, educational content, and more. Because video is so versatile (you can upload a how-to video one day, and a webinar the next), it will naturally create a more engaging experience for your visitors than you would be able to muster if you were just posting text-based articles on a daily basis.

3. Video Is an Opportunity for More Social Shares

That increased engagement also creates a variety of positive results in and of itself, which is ultimately another way that it can help improve your SEO efforts. Not only does video tend to generate about 1,200% more social shares than text and images combined, but 92% of people who consume videos on a mobile device say that they are likely to share content they enjoy with other people.

This is something you can use to your advantage in other ways, too. Say you’re in the process of launching your own VOD platform and you create a series of videos that will live on your site to promote it. As your SEO increases, more people will be exposed to your primary domain – which points them directly towards your OTT service that you can then build awareness for at the exact same time.

4. Video Will Get You a Higher Organic CTR on Google

Paid ads are certainly valuable, but for true long-term SEO gains, you need to focus as much attention as possible on driving organic traffic whenever you can. Don’t forget that not only are 70% of the links that search users click on organic, but this is also by design – between 70 and 80% of people say they ignore the paid ads entirely.

This is another area where video shines, as another study revealed that companies who use video on a regular basis tend to enjoy about 41% more web traffic from search than those who don’t. So not only will that video content generate an appreciable short-term boost in your ranking, but the higher traffic levels you’ll get will help you stay at the top of those results pages.

5. It’s Easier to Gain Actionable Insight from Video

One of the most important ideas you need to understand in terms of marketing is that, by and large, your first effort will rarely be your strongest. There is always room for improvement – and in terms of video and its relationship to SEO, a video is better at this than just about anything.

Another study revealed that brands using advanced video analytics were twice as likely to report significant ROI improvements as a result. It’s easier to find out why people are reacting the way they are to a video as opposed to something like a blog post, giving you a chance to create better content in the future. This insight won’t just allow for increases in your search engine rankings… it’ll also dramatically strengthen the relationship that people are able to forge with your business, too.

6. Video is the Type of Content People Want

Finally, one of the biggest ways that video content can improve your SEO efforts is also perhaps the most straightforward.

If you want your site to rank as highly as possible, you need to give the people what they want. That really is the ticket to everything – if you offer content they respond to, they’ll share it more, experience it for longer periods of time, and will undoubtedly keep coming back for more.

With all that in mind, you would be truly hard-pressed to find something more effective at accomplishing all of these things than video.

OTT content on Facebook alone generates about eight billion video views on average every day. YouTube mobile video consumption is increasing at a rate ofabout 100% every year. All told, about 55% of people watch at least one video on a daily basis.

These days, people want video. They want it more than any other type of content. They’re willing to give you copious amounts of their time and attention (not to mention their money) in exchange for it. When all of these points are considered together, it’s clear that video content isn’t just a way to improve your SEO.

It’s one of the best opportunities you have to empower the foundation upon which your entire business is built over the next decade. It would be a shame not to take full advantage of it.