Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator

vBulletin Google Sitemaps by vBSEO v.2.5 - vBulletin 3.7.x
Download vB 3.8.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.6.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.5.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.0.x Compatible Version Here

Note: Version 2.5 replaces all previous versions of the vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator, and now includes support for all the new URL types in vBulletin 3.8.x.

Overview
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Providing Google, Yahoo, Ask sitemaps is an essential step towards improving your forums.

The "vBSEO Google Sitemaps" plugin provides a solution that allows your forum to be indexed by the Google (and also Yahoo and Ask) search engines faster, more completely, more effectively, and with less bandwidth consumption.

The ultimate goal is to help you achieve more web traffic for your forum.

Originally Posted by Google's Description of GSM

https://services.google.com/inquiry/publishertools?hl=en_US
Google Sitemaps is an easy way for you to help improve your site?s representation in the Google index. It's a collaborative crawling system that enables you to communicate directly with Google. You get a smarter crawl because you can provide Google with specific information about all your web pages, such as when a page was last modified or how frequently it changes.

Note: This plugin is fully compliant with vBSEO 3.x version. The current version is vBSEO 3.2. However, if you are running vBSEO, please upgrade to vBSEO 3.2 or greater before installing.

Compatibility
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Fully compatible with:

• vBulletin 3.0.x, 3.5.x, 3.6.x, 3.7.x and 3.8.x
• vBulletin Blogs 1.0.x and 2.0.x *Optional
• vBSEO 2.x, 3.x *Optional

What does it do?
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• Auto-generates a Google XML sitemap for all of your specified forum URL types (including vBulletin Blog URLs).
• Auto-generates a Yahoo text sitemap for all of your specified forum URL types.
• Auto-notifies Google when a new sitemap is generated.
• Automatically sends you a summary of the sitemap generation via email each time it is created.
• Includes only publicly accessible forums and threads.
• Allows Google/Yahoo to find all of your forum URLs without having to spider the forum to find the links.
• Allows Google/Yahoo to find your forum URLs without having to account for query string and/or session ID information.
• Allows Google to give precedence to crawling your higher priority forum pages.
• Allows Google to give precedence to crawling your forum pages that change more frequently.
• Allows you to conserve bandwidth by more efficiently facilitating the crawling processes for GoogleBot and Yahoo Slurp.
• Is 100% compatible with the static CRUs (Content Relevant URLs) used by vBSEO-enabled forums.

How does it work?
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Whenever it is scheduled or invoked via the URL, this plugin will generate both the Google XML formatted and the Yahoo text formatted sitemaps. If you selected "Yes" to the Google auto-notification setting, Google will be notified each time the sitemap is generated. The Yahoo sitemap must be manually submitted to http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request/.

• Google Sitemap files are gzipped
• Forum and thread pages are listed with pagination (i.e. all pages for each forums/thread are included in the sitemap)
• Maximum Priority is set for Sticky threads.
• Optimization for sitemap generation on large forums.

Automated Reporting Tool
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The vBSEO Sitemap includes a report tool, allowing you to track your progress. To access your reports enter the following URL:

http://www.example.com/forums/vbseo_sitemap/

NOTE: Replace "http://www.example.com/forums/" with the full URL to your vB forum root.


You will be required to login by providing your "Sitemap Interface Access Password" from your vBSEO Sitemap settings in:

• vBulletin Admin CP (for 3.5.x/3.6.x/3.7.x/3.8.x users) OR
• vbseo_sitemap.php configuration file (for 3.0.x users) located in the vbseo_sitemap directory in your forum root.

Once you successfully login, you will be provided with a list of 'Useful Links'. Here are the 4 main links:

Show Reports List
The 'Show Reports List' link will display a report of each time your vBSEO Sitemap generator executed, including the (1) date, (2) run time, (3) total URLs included, and (4) and change in # of URLs included from the last generation.

Each vBSEO Sitemap generation record will include a (1) "View details" and (2) "Remove record" link. The "View Details" link shows more detailed information about the sitemap generated. The "Remove record" will permanently delete the record from your reports.

Show Sitemap Downloads Log
The 'Show Sitemap Downloads Log' link will display a report of each time your vBSEO Sitemap was downloaded by either a search engine (GoogleBot or Yahoo) or by another user agent (i.e. Web browser, etc.).

The report includes the (1) date, (2) name of sitemap file downloaded, (3) Bot, (4) IP address of the downloader, and the (5) User-agent.

Each vBSEO Sitemap download record will include a "Remove record" link which will permanently delete the record from your reports.

Run Sitemap Generator
The 'Run Sitemap Generator' link will automatically regenerate your Google and Yahoo sitemaps.

Your Forums Homepage
The 'Your Forums Homepage' link is a quick link back to your forum homepage.

Additional Links
Additional links to various other related SEO resources are also included.


Click "Install"
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Please click "Install" to show your support for this script.


Installation & Configuration for vB 3.5.x, 3.6.x, 3.7.x and 3.8.x as a Plugin
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Follow the installation/upgrade instructions provided in the docs/readme.html file.


Google Webmaster Accounts
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It is NOT required for you to have a Google Webmaster account to run the vBulletin Google Sitemaps plugin. If you decide to setup an account for testing purposes you can do so here:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login?sourceid=gsm&subid=us-et-about2


Copyright & Licensing

============================

• vBSEO Google Sitemaps plugin is copyright protected by Crawlability Inc.
• You are free to download and install this plugin on any vBulletin forum for which you hold a valid vB license.
• Unauthorized distribution of any code and/or documentation, whole or in part, included here is strictly prohibited.
• In addition, the following copyright notice must be maintained.

vBSEO(TM) ? 2005-2009 Crawlability, Inc.


Revision History
============================

02/22/2009 - Version 2.5 Released

NEW FEATURE: Blog tags URLs are included.
NEW FEATURE: Social Group Discussion URLs are included.
NEW FEATURE: Smart Priority applied for the following URL types

1. Show Post
2. Member Profiles
3. Forum Display
4. Poll Results
5. Blog Entries
6. Member Profile Albums
7. Social Groups
8. Social Groups Discussions
9. Social Group Pictures
10. Tags
11. Blog Tags

UPDATE: Compatible with vBulletin 3.8.x. Includes the following updated settings:

1. Priority Range - Show Post
2. Priority Range - Member Profiles
3. Priority Range - Forum Display
4. Priority Range - Poll Results
5. Priority Range - Show Thread
6. Priority Range - Blog Entries
7. Priority Range - Member Profile Albums
8. Priority Range - Social Groups
9. Priority Range - Social Group Pictures
10. Priority Range - Tags

Fix: Social Group Discussion database error is fixed.

Upgrade Instructions
============================

(1) Follow the installation/upgrade instructions provided in the docs/readme.html file.

(2) For versions of vBulletin 3.6.x only: Open "Schedule Manager" in the vBulletin Admin Control Panel (admincp); Remove existing scheduled task for Sitemap Generator if you have one.
Note: The new task will be automatically setup when you import the XML product file.

Other vBSEO Plugins

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• vBSEO - vBulletin Search Engine Optimization
  
• vBSEO Conditional Signatures for vBulletin

vBSEO Affiliate Program
============================

We welcome you to join the vBSEO Affiliate Program.

[veenuisthebest]

amazing mod I must say.. wonder why i did not noticed it before.

I have few questions:-

1. Why is that .htaccess in forum dir required, i mean what does it actually do ? Is it just for pointing to sitemap file that is in the data dir from site root ? Can't google download sitemaps from inside directories coz I see in Webmaster tools that we can add from inside dirs as well.

Example: sitemap.xml
Example: directory/other_sitemap.xml

2. Right after generating sitemap, is it submitted to Google instantly ? I see in my webmaster tools that it still says, "You have not submitted any Sitemaps".

3. Is it okay to set "Generate Yahoo-Compatible Text Sitemap" to NO. Is it as important as google's ?

4. I have included group.php, album.php and tags.php, yet I see this in report details everytime I generate sitemap:-
Album URLs 0 (-)
Social Group URLs 0 (-)
Tag URLs 0 (-)

Also, I checked in sitemap_1.xml manually, there aren't any url's of either of those 3.

5. In the Sitemap Downloads Log, I see only Google and MSN downloaded my sitemap and not others. Does it take some time ?

6. If I'd like to index other custom vbpage URL's (i.e. not default vbulletin's), how do I do it with this mod and not manually ? Do I need to create a custom addon for that ?

Thank you so much.

[veenuisthebest]

Originally Posted by Shmaba

Where does the HTacess folder get uploaded to?

You do not upload the htaccess folder, instead just the .htaccess file in it to your forums root.

[iojam]

Toupsx,

did you generate sitemap?


veenuisthebest,

1. it is required that Google finds sitemap in the topmost folder of the site (forum).

2. Google, is "pinged", but it cannot submit sitemap to your google webmaster account, you should do that manually.

3. Yes, it's not required for Google. Earlier text sitemap was used for Yahoo submission, but now Yahoo supports xml sitemap as well.

4. Do you have any groups/albums publically accessible on your forum?

5. Yes, it might take time. You can submit sitemap to Yahoo here: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/mysites

6. You can either create an add-on (similar to ones includes in "addons/" folder) or manually insert all URLs in "extra-urls.txt" file and they will be included in sitemap as well.

[Toupsx]

Originally Posted by iojam

Toupsx,

did you generate sitemap?


veenuisthebest,

1. it is required that Google finds sitemap in the topmost folder of the site (forum).

2. Google, is "pinged", but it cannot submit sitemap to your google webmaster account, you should do that manually.

3. Yes, it's not required for Google. Earlier text sitemap was used for Yahoo submission, but now Yahoo supports xml sitemap as well.

4. Do you have any groups/albums publically accessible on your forum?

5. Yes, it might take time. You can submit sitemap to Yahoo here: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/mysites

6. You can either create an add-on (similar to ones includes in "addons/" folder) or manually insert all URLs in "extra-urls.txt" file and they will be included in sitemap as well.

Yes, its auto-generated over 15 times now, and I manually tried several times. (installed this a while ago didn't know that the links weren't working =\

[veenuisthebest]

Originally Posted by iojam

veenuisthebest,

1. it is required that Google finds sitemap in the topmost folder of the site (forum).

2. Google, is "pinged", but it cannot submit sitemap to your google webmaster account, you should do that manually.

3. Yes, it's not required for Google. Earlier text sitemap was used for Yahoo submission, but now Yahoo supports xml sitemap as well.

4. Do you have any groups/albums publically accessible on your forum?

5. Yes, it might take time. You can submit sitemap to Yahoo here: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/mysites

6. You can either create an add-on (similar to ones includes in "addons/" folder) or manually insert all URLs in "extra-urls.txt" file and they will be included in sitemap as well.

1. Okay
2. Does "pinging successful" means that sitemap has been successfully submitted to the respective SE's servers ?
3. Okay
4. Yes, i have the groups/albums enabled for guests.
5. Okay
6. So this means that we can index static url's with extra-urls.txt and for dynamic urls we need to create an addon, right ?
7. In the email I get "Live.com Ping" as well but it does not display in Report details in the admincp.

Edit: Think I found a bug. I have 9 static URL's listed in "extra-urls.txt". Then I generated a sitemap. FINE ! All 9 are loaded in the sitemap. But the scheduled task that ran at 2 am did not caught those URL's and gave a -9. Then I manually ran generator and got a +9. Seems scheduled task ain't checking "extra-urls.txt"

Thank You !

[jim6763nva]

Originally Posted by iojam

jim6763nva,

you should disable "Include old URLs" option.

Thanks! That worked

[kyle1745]

Install went fine, but when I try to point google to it it comes back with errors:

Unsupported file format
Your Sitemap does not appear to be in a supported format. Please ensure it meets our Sitemap guidelines and resubmit

Do you need to pick a specific type when you add it to google? I tried the following link: http://www.sitename.com/forum/vbseo_sitemap

[abdobasha2004]

I installed it carefully
when I go to the sitemap link
http://100fm6.com/vb/sitemap_index.xml.gz
problem solved

[veenuisthebest]

Originally Posted by kyle1745

Install went fine, but when I try to point google to it it comes back with errors:


Do you need to pick a specific type when you add it to google? I tried the following link: http://www.sitename.com/forum/vbseo_sitemap

THe URL is wrong. Go to vBSEO Sitemap Reports and give Your Google Sitemap Index URL:

Originally Posted by abdobasha2004

I installed it carefully
when I go to the sitemap link
http://100fm6.com/vb/sitemap_index.xml
I get this
"Sitemap file not found"

what is the problem?

This is probably because you do not have the .htaccess in the forums root with the required contents. Read the installation manual.

[Welshy2008]

Hi vBSEO,

I have uploaded everything to the tee (I hope). and when I enter the adress: http://www.yoursite.com/vB-root/vbseo_sitemap/ (with my address entered ) I get what is showing in the attachment below.

I also did your test to see if my mod_rewrite is able. It re-directed me back to Google homepage - so no problems there.

Your help would be very much appreciated.

PS. I pretty new to this, but am 99% certain all files have been uploaded correctly. I am running 3.6.8 Patch Level 2.

Many Thanks,
Welshy2008.