You probably know that putting great content on your website is the secret to ranking well in the search engines and attracting lots of traffic and conversions. But what should you do if you've been publishing great content for several months and still aren't where you want to be? Don't give up hope.

As Nick Stamoulis observed over at Search Engine Guide, you need great content to compel your website visitors to buy; “it's what the search engines use to properly index and rank your website, it's what helps you connect with your target audience, build your online brand presence and authority, drives your social media marketing campaign and more.” Without great content, you're nowhere; just ask any SEO.

As you probably know by now, though, anything worth having isn't easy to get, and that's as true of great content as it is of anything else. You either need to buy it, which isn't cheap, or get a writer in-house who can churn out really good blog posts, articles, white papers, or whatever you need on a regular schedule. As a writer myself, I can tell you this isn't easy. It's bound to take more man-hours than you expect, even if using an employee helps to keep your costs under control. An employee writing an article can shift to other things, but can't really work on two things at once, so you can count the time spent writing (and researching) as a kind of opportunity cost.

By itself, the cost of creating great content is no big deal – if it pays off in rankings, clicks, and conversions. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that this will happen, either right away or months down the line. As Stamoulis notes, even the most brilliant blog post may go unnoticed. Sure, everyone says that you need great content to get the attention of your audience and industry professionals. This will lead to sharing on social networks and among bloggers, which leads to quality inbound links and enlarges your online brand presence. But “just because you created a great piece of content, that doesn't guarantee that people are going to care,” Stamoulis notes.

The fact of the matter is, if content marketing works in your niche, then your competition knows this, too. They may have been publishing great content on their sites longer than you've been doing it on yours, which means you have an uphill battle ahead of you. Stamoulis points out that it takes a long time to fully develop a business blog, find your niche and voice, understand the kind of content your audience wants to see, earn their trust and loyalty, and prove that you're worthy of their respect as a source of information.

How long will it take to establish yourself? Stamoulis says that it could take years, depending on your niche, “and you'll need to be publishing great content every step of the way. That's a lot of content that is going to get overlooked/overshadowed.” Even so, he recommends that you not give up after just a few months, though you may not see anyone paying attention to your work. “Online marketing is a marathon, not a sprint, and the longer you keep at it the more reward you'll get in the long run,” he observed. Good luck!

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