At CDNify we are passionate about web performance and accelerating content. As a bootstrapped start up our other big passion is growth hacking tactics, so we’ve decided to round up our top 25 links of 2013. They cover everything from doing PR on a budget to building your mailing lists.

1. How Product Engagement Metrics Lead to Growth for Software Startups

   Running a website or blog is just one side of the coin, to successfully maintain an upwards trajectory you need to analyse engagement metrics and track data. Find out what works best with your products/services, setting up goals to increase growth and (in the long run) conversion.

2. The Secret behind Pinterest’s Growth was Marketing, Not Engineering, says CEO Ben Silbermann

   Pinterest is now the third largest source of referral traffic on the web, but how did it get so big and what’s its secret? Ben Silbermann claims it’s all down to marketing. Instead of focusing on re-working the product he brought it to it’s intended audience, explaining what it is with fun campaigns.

3. Startup Marketing Strategy with SEO as its Core

   In recent years every marketer knows the word “SEO” is being toxic, associated with bad practices and ways to con search engine results, but it’s still an important element to get noticed on the web. Startups should still implement SEO methods, even in their smallest form, to be search engine friendly and produce better page ranking results.

4. Start to Automate your Marketing with Alerts

   Exploring the endless ocean that is the Internet can be time consuming and energy draining. Instead, automate the flow of information with alerts to get the data you want. Keep up-to-date with the latest webinars, demos, or event with alerts.

5. No Managers: Why we Removed Bosses at Treehouse

   A world without managers is a bold and liberating move, but Treehouse did just that! Wanting to be a company that focuses strongly on a good work ethic without the office politics, they’re now leading the pack in what makes a great working environment.

6. How I Grew the KISSmetrics Blog from 0 to 350,000 Readers a Month

   Neil Patel, a veteran blogger of over 8 years, has found the secret sauce into growing blogs, be it consumer or business based. Watch the free webinar as Neil explains how to generate more traffic and increase your ROI via the KISSmetrics Webinar Video.

7. The Top 7 Content Marketing Trends that will Dominate 2014

   Content marketing is fast becoming the standard for businesses to attract potential clients. Get in the know with what it is and 7 trends you should be aware of.

8. 5 B2C Marketing Tactics that B2B Companies Should Steal

   The world of business can be tough in terms of brand awareness, but it’s imperative for that lasting memorable identity. B2B marketers should be looking to B2C tactics to build a better brand and product to connect with their audience.

9. Advanced A/B Testing that You Should Know

   A/B testing is a fundamental tool for marketers testing out the same page, but with a different layout to derive what worked better. In this advanced article get to grips with segmentation, targeting for different types of users, and conversion goals.

10. Five Steps to Maximise Success in Targeting Growth

    A mistake startups seem to make often is trying to grab as many potential clients as possible. Instead it’s better to focus time and energy on a small niche, growing over time. Learn how to successfully identify your audience, define goals, and execute a plan that will help maximise growth.

11. The 2013 SEO Checklist

    Need a good well rounded SEO to-do list? This definitive checklist runs through what you should be doing to improve SEO in 2013.

12. The Death of SEO (Part 1): The Rise of Social, PR, and Real Content

    Part one of two, this in-depth article examines the decline of SEO over recent years, being replaced by more popular ways to get a better page online presence.

13. The Death of SEO (Part 2): Generating Real Content

    The second part to “The Death of SEO”, concluding with how quality content is the future to driving traffic and the process of how it should work.

14. The Highest ROI Way to Increase Signups: Make a Minimal Homepage

    It’s safe to say that we should all know cluttered pages drive away users, it’s the equivalent of making a bad first impression on someone new. New users are very impressionable, so it’s imperative to make the homepage as welcoming as possible. Run through some great minimalist site homepages like Dropbox and Pinterest.

15. Growth Hacker TV

    Need you weekly growth hacking fix? Growth Hacker TV has over 100 episodes dedicated to helping marketers and startup enthusiasts by revealing some of their top secrets.

16. 5 Moves that Fuelled Evernote’s Impressive Growth

    Evernote is a popular way to organise all your text, images, and videos online and across all devices. It’s grown exponentially by relaying on open-source software to cut costs, applying cross-platform capabilities to appeal to a wide audience, and other useful tips.

17. Why You Should Learn Some SQL

    To successfully grow a product or service you first need to understand how it works, this is the idea behind learning SQL. A query language can open up whole new worlds in terms of data, allowing you to ask your database just about anything on who is coming and going on your site.

18. Favourite Growth Hacking Tools

    A handful of growth hacking tools you should be using to help generate fantastic content ideas, track and increase conversions, and a survey tool.

19. Twitter Broadens its Keyword Targeting for Ads with Synonyms and “Twitter Lingo”

    Just this month Twitter announced they’re rolling out keyword targeting ads that help marketers with keyword campaigns. Now synonyms can be expanded upon to match a wider array of results.

20. OptinSkin, Blog Success, and Capturing More Email Subscribers

    Growing your audience means you have to be engaging, and there’s nothing more engaging then short friendly emails. Learn how to use squeeze pages to capture email addresses without scaring off your audience.

21. If You Think Scalability is All About Developing Software, You’re Wrong

    The first part to a three part series looks at how businesses can successfully scale efficiently without having to go down a rabbit hole of code.

22. How to Launch a Startup Without Writing Code

    Programming isn’t for everyone, but knowing a little can go along way. When launching a startup it’s sometimes better to replace tech with a more personal touch: focus on customers, have real people ready to answer queries, and use off the shelf solutions.

23. How to Bootstrap Your Public Relations

    Bootstrap is an open-source framework to help quickly build a modern website for any purpose. DIY your website by Bootstrapping it, avoiding expansive alternatives and allowing you to maintain your own site.

24. The 5 Phases of Growth Hacking

    Growth hacking is a non-traditional way of marketing, products like LinkedIn and Reddit have been built by adopting these new set of strategies. Go through the five steps on how to successfully growth hack, from start to finish.

25. How to Prevent Search Engines Accessing Duplicate Content

    With new rules being brought out by search engines to determine what’s deemed worthy for users’ search results, it’s difficult not to be caught out. Understand how website indexing works and avoid content duplication so your content isn’t delisted.

Hopefully by the time you’ve gone through a few of the links you should have a good understanding of what it takes to grow your site, blog, or project. Following the articles will: Help you get a better understanding of growth hacking > apply the tactics and attract more users > improve conversion.

Growth hacking is just one side of the coin when it comes to online presence. Checkout the Top 25 Links on Web Performance, techniques and methods to supercharge your content.