I posted this in another thread related to this MOD, but it doesn't really have responses there ... so if you don't mind I am going to repost here because I would really like to figure this out with peoples help :)

Here is my post:
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Great MOD!

Question? Can I use this to create a sitemap for my whole site? I am a bit confused ...
I am using vbAdvanced (as my root) and vBulletin as my root/forum

I have this working for my forum, and seems to be working, but when I do searches for things that I "should" be pulling up in google, they aren't showing up? It has been about two weeks since I have been submitting these sitemaps.

I am wondering, do I need to submit a sitemap for my root folder as well?? (This mod seems to only make a sitemap for the http://www.mysite.com/forum and not for the root section http://www.mysite.com)

I guess that is where I am confused because I am thinking that this mod created a sitemap ONLY for the vBulletin forum. (http://www.mysite.com/forum)

When I have vbAdvanced in the /root (http://www.mysite.com)

and I would like to create a sitemap for the entire site? Even though I don't have toooooo much yet in the front page (aka vbAdvanced)

Let me know please ... thank you very much! :D

Katelynn, first off, take a look at, and sign up to Google Webmaster Central which can be accessed from this link http://www.google.com/webmasters/ from here, click on 'Sign in to Webmaster tools'.

Once you have submitted your domain and sitemap you will learn all kinds of stuff and errors that Google is encountering when visiting your site, along with tons of other really useful stuff!

As to the sitemap stuff from your vbadvanced homepage (which is the same scenario as mine), you will need to add another .htaccess file into the root folder with the following details:

And pay particular attention to forums/ because you may need to change this to 'forum' or whatever variation you are using to access your forum.

Please note that I'm still awaiting a reply back from vbSEO as regards the error Google has picked up on with the sitemap URL errors!

Thanks for the quick reply!

Cool, you have the same setup as me, so you understand what I am trying to do!
- root is http://www.mysite.com (vbAdvanced)
- forum is http://www.mysite.com (vBulletin)

When you say add "Another" .htaccess file into the root folder you mean one similar to the .htaccess file in my root/forum directory? accept with the changes you made above?

This is where I get confused ... I have this .htaccess file in my root/forum folder
What about the robots.txt file in my root folder? Should I add anything to that for the sitemap? I already have this at the bottom of my robots.txt file
Thanks!!

Katelynn, I quite understand your comments, it took me some time to figure out what was going on and I'm still not entirely sure!

So, from what I understand, you have your website at www.examplesite.com where your vbadvanced page is displayed, and you have your forums for the site at www.examplesite.com/forums

From what I have read so far is that you have the .htaccess code already installed in the forums folder for rewriting the position of the sitemap - So leave that file where it is

What you need to do is create a new file called .htaccess by duplicating this .htaccess file, then placing it in the root folder, then edit the text within it to display:

As to the robots.txt file, this is telling search engine robots where the sitemap is.

After you have added the second .htaccess file into the root folder you can change the text in the robots.txt file to view the file in the new position, namely Sitemap: http://www.mysite.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz

Please note I am on a steep learning curve with this, and don't understand .php coding so have no idea what it all means, all I do know is that Google webmaster tools has located the file and has downloaded it (with an error message), so I've nearly cracked it.

I think the problem with this sitemap generator lies with the instructions which presume that the forum will be in the root of the site, ie on the homepage, rather than in a sub-directory.

Those who understand .php coding don't need instructions, those of us who don't understand .php coding need very precise instructions!

Once you have the Google webmaster account you can see whether Google is encountering any problems with the sitemap

How do I include my vBadvanced and vBgallery pages to the sitemaps ?

Thanks

Yes, you assume right about how I have my site setup:
www.mysite.com is vbadvanced
www.mysite.com/forum is vbulletin

Thank You for your input Pebbled ... I am trying your advice ... I am wondering if I should only be generating the ONE sitemap for the main page? Cuz in google webmaster tools, i essentially have TWO(2) sitemaps for www.mysite.com and www.mysite.com/forum but they are the exact same file?

Anybody have any input on this? I need to increase my rankings, and not quite sure how to do it ... with this setup!?

Thanks soooooo much!

Yes, that is what I want to know!!! :)

My vBadvanced is my ROOT site www.mysite.com
and my forum is www.mysite.com/forum

This MOD is FANTASTIC by the way!!! I LOVE IT! That is why I want to get it working with my ROOT location / vbAdvanced

Thank YOU!!!:D

I am concerned about the above post ... will having this setup hurt my google rankings?
... cuz I have two sitemaps submitted for ROOT and for FORUM but they are identical sitemaps created by this mod.

Sorry to sound so new, I am just not sure of the proper way to get my site in the search engines properly.

Thanks

Katelynn, I think you will find that you have two sitemaps after following the above because each has a upper limit of 20,000 URL's, so the overspill goes into the second sitemap, etc. if you take a close look at the numbers you will probably see 19,999 in the first.

My stats which I received in an email state:

Summary:
===============
Forum Display: 403
Show Thread: 9262
Show Post: 11232
Member Profiles:
Poll Results: 13
Archive: 9308

Total Indexed URLs: 30220
Total Processing Time: 38.56 seconds

Google ping: Successful.
Yahoo ping: Disabled.
----------------------------
Also note, the 2nd piece of code merely rewrites to the 1st - As far as I'm aware you're not actually creating a duplicated sitemap.

Like I said, if you have Google Webmaster installed it will tell you about any problems it's encountering - I'm still waiting for some advice from vBSEO ref the following error:

Sitemap included in this sitemap index
1 - 2 of 2
Filename Status
sitemap_1.xml.gz - Errors Details
sitemap_2.xml.gz - OK Details

When I click on the errors report it says:

Line Status Details
Details 15 Invalid URL
This is not a valid URL. Please correct it and resubmit. Help
URL:
Parent tag:
Tag:
Found: /public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data
url
loc
20-Mar-2008

Guyz, I am having trouble ... I have been using this mod for 3 weeks+ now and my site is just not getting into google search engine. I search for words I KNOW are in my forum and they are not coming up in google?

They are not coming up in Yahoo either ...

What am I doing wrong with this MOD?

I have 1000 members on my site and almost 40000 urls that the sitemap is generating, off my forum.

Thanks for any help ... Please see my posts above to explain my setup (which is vbAdvanced ROOT and vBulletin FORUM)

Cheers!