How To Drive 10X Website Traffic Using BuzzSumo

How will this website traffic strategy benefit you?

We’ve been implementing this strategy since for years, and it has consistently generated up to 10X our daily average website traffic. I don’t want to be one of those marketers that “guarantees” results that sound too good to be true, but from our experience, this strategy works every time.

In addition to the obvious website traffic increase, this strategy also opens up opportunities to:

✅ Build relationships with influential people in your industry

✅ Increase your credibility by being mentioned by influential people online

✅ Increase your own online influence

✅ Learn from the most influential people in your industry

The image below shows the spikes in website traffic we got when implementing this strategy. BuzzSumo has tested out this method – check out their top 100 PR influencers and top 100 content marketers – and we have too:

• Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers
• Top 100 Social Media Marketing Influencers

What is the strategy?

The strategy is focused on:

1. Creating an article which lists the most influential people/brands in a relevant niche
2. Reaching out to the influential people/brands to let them know they made the list

Then all you need to do is wait for your traffic to skyrocket once they share your article to their large online audiences.

Ultimately, the strategy works because it’s human nature to want to share our achievements.

In the current age of YouTubers and social media influencers, being “influential” online is perceived to be a pretty big achievement.

Imagine how you’d feel being listed in the “Top 100” list of influential people/brands in your niche — in the world!

You’d find it hard not to share the article. We’re all prone to a humblebrag every now and again.

How to implement this website traffic building strategy

Step #1: Identify a relevant influencer list niche

To gain the most value from this strategy, you need to create a list of influencers around a topic that is relevant to you/your brand. If you run a tech company, it would be pretty odd to create a list of the most influential gardeners in the world.

One of the easiest ways to identify an influencer list niche is to simply create a list around the industry you work in.

It could be “The Top 100 Most Influential Manufacturers/Bankers/Farmers” etc.

The only trouble with this is that most people have created these broad lists before.

This is why niching down even further can work really well.

For example, if you work in the food industry, you could narrow the influencer list topic down to one of the following:

• Vegans
• Vegetarians
• Chefs (could narrow further to the type of chef)
• Food Bloggers
• Food Brands
• Food YouTube channels

Step #2: Identify influencers using BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo has a handy Influencer Tool that allows you to type in keywords and identify the most influential Twitter / X accounts based on a variety of metrics that demonstrate an account’s influence.

To identify influencers on your chosen topic, simply type in the keyword in the box provided and click “Search”

Step #3: Export the data

Once the search results appear, an “Export” button pops up next to the “Search” button. Click “Export” and export the data as an Excel or CSV file.

Step #4: Create a well formatted table

Once you open up the spreadsheet, it will look like The Matrix, but don’t panic.

What we need to do with all this data is decide which columns we would like to add in a nice table that we can paste into our article.

Now, what you include in the table is up to you.

Ask yourself two questions when deciding:

1. What can I include that will make it more likely for the influencers to share the article?
2. What can I include that will help easily communicate what the table is?

Below is a screenshot of the data I like to include: Rank, Twitter / X Name, Page Authority, Reply Ratio, Retweet Ratio, and URL Share Ratio.

Once you’ve decided your headings, delete any unwanted data and format the table.

We make the column headers bold and use capital letters, and also link the Twitter / X usernames to the listed influential account’s Twitter / X page (this increases the likelihood of them sharing the article).

Step #5: Create the influencer list blog to build website traffic

Once you have created the influencer list table, you can put together the article on your website.

It’s important to include certain things in your blog to boost the chances of the influential accounts sharing it.

Firstly, take a look at the examples below for inspiration and then go through the list of items below to ensure you include them in your article.

Example 1: Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers

Example 2: Top 100 Social Media Marketing Influencers

Example 3: Top 100 Content Marketers

Example 4: Top 100 PR Influencers

Step #6: Explain the methodology behind the list

I want to let you in on a little secret.

A lot of “Top influencer lists” you see out there, even ones on the most credible websites, are nothing more than a list of people the contributor has chosen.

I wrote about this in this article, “Fake Influencers: Are You a Fake Influencer?” and it’s still a big problem today.

Most of these lists are not backed up by data.

That’s why it’s so important to use an influencer identification tool like BuzzSumo and explain your methodology.

It provides a level of credibility to the list.

Below is an example of how we explain the methodology when we use BuzzSumo.

BuzzSumo returns the top influencers for a keyword sorted by "Relevance". It's this "Relevance" that determines how the list gets sorted from 1-100. It is simply an average of all the key metrics that make an influencer a success, including follower count, average retweets, retweet ratio, verified status – even the number of times an influencer appears in relevant Twitter / X lists.

Step #7: Include images of the listed influential accounts

If you include images of the influential people/brands, they are more likely to share the article.

It’s kind of like when Starbucks’ baristas write your name on a cup.

It makes you feel more special than if they just verbally said, “This is your coffee.”

We include these images in the header image, social share images, and thumbnails.

Step #8: Link back to the influential account’s profile / website for more traffic to your site

You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours?

Linking back to the listed accounts provides them value and ultimately makes it more likely that they’ll share the article.

Step #9: Make it easy to share

Using a mobile responsive social share tool and adding click to tweet links throughout the article make sharing the article a walk in the park.

Again, this makes it more likely to be shared by the influential accounts listed.

Step #10: Contact influential accounts that have been listed

This step is the most important of them all.

You need to personally reach out to every account that has been listed and congratulate them.

Personally, I would not recommend asking them to share the article, people don’t like being told what to do.

We’ve found sending a DM to the account on Twitter / X works the best, but you could email, message, etc.

Below is an example message we’ve sent in the past.

Hey [first name], We used BuzzSumo to identify the Top 100 [influencer list topic] in [year], and you made it on the list! You can find the full list here: [insert link to list] Congrats! – [your name]