Why you should build backlinks to backlinks?

A common query that people make is: "Why should I build backlinks to my supporting sites and articles?  Why don't I point all my links to my money site?"

The answer lies in the Page Rank algorithm.  According to some models of the Page Rank algorithm, a search engine bot starts at a random point on the net.  There's probably some sort of map where you only get one spot on the map per C-class ip to avoid spammers from just building a whole lot of content to hoard page rank.  You can get bonus spots on the map if there are lots of domains within that C-class ip and a smaller bonus if there are sub-domains.

After that the search engine spot starts on a page and has an 85% chance to move on to a link on the page.  Each link has a probability of being clicked based on it's position within the page.  Contextual links are more likely to be clicked whereas footer and sidebar links are less likely to be clicked.  Let's say that each spot the search engine starts on gets one point of page rank.

There's another factor for search engines and that is keyword authority.  Keyword authority may involve search engine rankings(the higher a site ranks for a keyword then the more authority they have for that keyword and the more they pass on to other sites).  It could also be a part of page rank.  Each time the bot hops to a site it remembers the keywords that were linked to it from previous sites so a if the bot hops 10 times in a row seeing the exact same keyword like Height Increase then that would be a very powerful boost to the final site with that keyword.

It is more likely however that Keyword Authority is a separate metric than page rank as page rank is more for allocating link juice than determining search engine ranking.

Page Rank involves approximately 12 key points.  PR N/A and then PR 0-10.  So that means to obtain a PR 10 site you'd want 12 levels of you between your links.  However, in a chain of 12 sites for a link at the first site to pass page rank to the twelfth site would be (.85)^12=0.14.  That is actually pretty good.  There is a 14% chance for a link at tier 12 of your link pyramid to pass page rank to your money site.  A 14% chance that the search engine bot crawls all 12 sites in one go.

Now, why should you build links to links then if there's an 86% chance that your Tier 12 link won't pass page rank to your money site and if you link directly to your money site you have an 85% chance of the link counting.

The answer involves keyword authority and anti-spam measures.

It's easy to get a whole bunch of Page Rank N/A links.  Just use automated software to churn out a whole bunch of forum profiles or profiles on other sites.  It's a lot harder to get higher PR links.  Spammy links can be deleted at any time so a spammer may be wasting their time by building links to the link.  Mass comment links can be deleted at any time.  The search engines have metrics specifically in their search engine to weed out spam like link age and domain age.  Both of these metrics having nothing to do with how good of content a site has.  Spammy links are less likely to have links built to them so by rewarding links from higher PR pages you are diminishing the power of spammy links.

Keyword Authority implies that a page or site has authority for a keyword.  If a search engine considers an article to have a lot of authority for a keyword it makes sense that they would also rank the article highly for the keyword.  By boosting the Search Ranking Presence of all your support articles you are increasing the keyword authority of those articles thus passing more keyword authority to your money site.

You should build links to your links to boost the passed keyword authority and spammy links don't usually receive a whole lot of links themselves(that last) so links that do have links are likely more powerful.