europeforvisitors - 2:28 pm on Aug 18, 2006 (gmt 0)

The reason the Pareto Principle works is that most publishers prepare and publish the most important parts of their website first - the parts most in demand by their potential visitors. This is only natural.

Good point, although I'd qualify it by saying "most publishers prepare and publish the most important aspects of a topic first." A site can have more than one topic or major subtopic, and adding a new subtopic can start the "most important" process all over again.

Later on they extend the site to include more in depth information - but information in much less demand.

That's probably true overall, but sometimes there are surprises. I've written a few articles on what seemed to be minor topics that have turned out to be some of the most popular pages on my site. As old-timers in the Midwest like to say, "Ya never know."

The value of the later additions, however, may be to produce a much more authoritative site which may attract repeat and new visitors to a site over its competition.

I agree with that 100%. Too many people focus on their "money" pages without looking at the bigger picture. That's we see so much teeth-gnashing in the Google News forum if rankings change. (When I see a post that begins "I've fallen from #1 in my sector," I think "There's another person who's bet everything on the home page and hasn't heard of the 'long tail of search.'")