More than 400 developers are in Boston for a search engine seminar that offers tips on paid listings and effective code writing.

"Search Engine Strategies" takes place at the Marriott Copley and concludes tonight. The event is run by internet.com, parent of boston.internet.com, and features panelists holding forth on the manipulation of spiders, crawlers, directories and doorways.

In his keynote address, Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, outlined guidelines for the increasingly prevalent practice of paid inclusion and ranking.

Not only have search engines been "monetized," along with everything else online, people are getting involved, which has altered the way developers write.

"We're past the point of feeding the spiders," Sullivan said.

Translation: Registry type search engines such as Yahoo and MSN have human editors. Because of that, Webmasters should abandon "spam" code designed to rank a site high up in a search result.

For example, no longer can Web page's description read to ensure a high ranking on a given financial search.

But paid inclusion is another matter.

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"You can pay Inktomi $30 per URL as an inclusion fee and for $199 Yahoo's Business Express will register your site within 48 hours of payment," Sullivan said. "If you want to wait the eight weeks, the cost for submission is $99."

Sites can be registered for no money but there's no guarantee it will get noticed in a timely fashion or that the directory or search engine will continue to feature it.

"Paid inclusion does not necessarily boost a site's ranking on searched pages," Sullivan warned. "Pages have a funny way of accidentally falling off the index."

With paid placement, directories such as Yahoo will charge on a per-click or per-impression basis. Success depends on your "arrival" page or even the search engine you choose.

In addition, directory sites will sell space on their sites as well in special vendor areas that sit outside the search results.

A recent survey of top search engines, including AOL, reveals that only 6 percent all traffic comes from search engines. According to Sullivan, it behooves a Webmaster to carefully craft a sites submission by adhering to the following:

• "Just the Facts, Ma'am" -- Use Dragnet type descriptors when submitting information to search engines and registries. Use two word titles and descriptions that are factual and only 25 words long. Do not call your shoe store a "the 7th footwear wonder of the world." Editors will not know what to make of it and ignore the information.

• Sink the Splash Page -- Since the home page of a domain is often ranked highest at a given site, be sure it has features descriptor text to give search engines, crawlers and spiders something to grab on to. All image and no text makes for a frustrated web crawler.

• Leveraging Links -- The more links on a page the better the chances of all kinds of traffic. Important pages have many links or "important" links pointing at them. The context of those links are taken into account by search engines, crawlers and spiders.

• Doorways -- If you're just not getting quality ranking by directories and search engines employ the use of doorways. This means "big ugly pages" made for each "term" describing the site. Multiple "pointer" pages get your site picked up by search engines.

• Watch Your Back -- After directory and search engine submission, check your site's ranking on various search engines. Use the following URLs: www.webpositiongold.com, www.topdogg.com and http://positionagent.bcentral.com

  For information about Search Engine Strategies in San Francisco this August, please see www.searchenginestrategies.com. Editor's note: Mary Agnes Nelen is a Boston-based writer, entrepreneur and Web site developer.