Bottom Up Search Engine Optimization?

I really like to to theorize about SEO and how things really work versus what others say work. Call me a tinkerer (is that a word?), a tester, or a dreamer, but I always seem to question conventional thinking.

So, as a segue, most webmaster's think of SEO as a top down kind of problem.

Here is what most people teach....

Find a long tail keyword, optimize the keyword on your pages...now get links for that keyword and hope to get ranked...that is the crib notes at least.

But what if instead, you went a different route? I call this the road less traveled because while most seem to think that long tail keywords as their primary keyword is the way to go, I have to ask....is it really worth the effort?

What if you were to build a site around an extremely competitive keyword and then worked from the bottom up rather than the top down?

Here is what I mean....

~Let's say your keyword is Cigars...that would be your primary keyword. You can forget about ranking for it anytime soon.....

BUT.....

~What if you built silos that covered a wide range of cigar related stuff like cigar lighters, cigar humidors, ect (which once again would take a while to rank in most cases)....

And then....

~What if you created articles for your long tails (which you can rank for quickly) and then pointed these to your silo home pages (which in turn would give link juice to them and link popularity based on their anchored text) and in turn pointed your silo keywords to your home page (link juice via anchored text.....

Now, I am thinking out loud here....

~what if rather than go on a link campaign for your primary keywords, instead you did a link campaign for your articles? Wouldn't that be an effective way to get deep pages within your site ranked?

*and if you articles are pointing to your silo pages with the effective keyword in the anchor text...wouldn't that help get your secondary keywords ranked (silo home page)?

*and if your silo home pages are pointing to your main home page (primary keyword), wouldn't that boost your authority for your primary keyword?

This is bottom up SEO and has been something that I have been thinking about lately....I would love to hear some thoughts by SEO experts and beginners alike on this subject.

Read what I read- http://www.google.com/reader/shared/...78324015770646