Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator

vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator - vBulletin 3.6.x
Download vB 3.8.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.7.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

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• 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
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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
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(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
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We welcome you to join the vBSEO Affiliate Program.

[Bacon Butty]

I found three files in my /forum/vbseo_sitemap/data which look to be the sitemaps;

sitemap_index.xml.gz
sitemap_2.xml.gz
sitemap_1.xml.gz
sitemap.txt.gz

But I cannot add any of these into googles webmaster tools 'add sitemap'. Can anybody tell me were I am going wrong?

[iojam]

Boots,

do you have a new entry in reports list after manual generation?

Bacon Butty,

I have tried forum/sitemap_index.xml.gz and /sitemap_index.xml.gz but it isn't accepting it?

What is the error you get?

[Bacon Butty]

Thanks iojan for trying to help.

Basically when i put sitemap_index.xml.gz in the google sitemap i get;

General HTTP error: 404 not found
We encountered an error while trying to access your Sitemap. Please ensure your Sitemap follows our guidelines and can be accessed at the location you provided and then resubmit.

When i put this in the google sitemap i get;

forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/sitemap_index.xml.gz

The Sitemap must be located at http://www.mysite.com/. To add a Sitemap at http://www.mysite.com/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/, first add that site to your account and then click the Add a Sitemap link beside it.

Any ideas?

[Simetrical]

Is there/will there be any functionality to automatically exclude threads and forums that aren't readable to unregistered users? I've manually excluded most of them, but there are still some remaining and more will accumulate over time. I don't want Google wasting its time looking for things that, once it's parsed the <meta> tags, it will discover it's not supposed to index anyway.

[iojam]

Bacon Butty,

what is sitemap URL you are submitting?

Simetrical,

all non-visible to guests threads should be excluded automatically. Make sure that you use the latest version of vBSEO Sitemap Generator.

[Simetrical]

Originally Posted by iojam

Simetrical,

all non-visible to guests threads should be excluded automatically. Make sure that you use the latest version of vBSEO Sitemap Generator.

I didn't look at whether the threads were being excluded, but I saw that the forums themselves were being provided. That would, I guess, just lead to Google/Yahoo! getting a permission error. For instance, it included forum 151 (the admin forum) from my site. I excluded that, and a bunch of others, but it still includes the ones I didn't specifically include even if they're passworded or otherwise hidden. For instance, the URL http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=252 is passworded but still available in the sitemaps at http://www.twcenter.net/urllist.txt.gz (and presumably the Google site maps too).

[iojam]

Is it closed for reading for "Unregistered" in usergroup permissions?

[Simetrical]

Sorry, it seems I was mistaken. Forums set to be unreadable to unregistered users don't show up, as intended. There's no problem there. Passworded forums do seem to show up, but that's probably good (actually there's a passworded forum I go to that I tend to find by Googling its name). No complaints from me, then, thanks a lot for the extension.

[iojam]

Great!

[kollam003]

Warning: gzopen(/home/vhosts/vinodr/public_html/www/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/urllist.txt.gz) [function.gzopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/vhosts/vinodr/public_html/www/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php on line 544

Warning: gzwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/vhosts/vinodr/public_html/www/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php on line 554

Warning: gzwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/vhosts/vinodr/public_html/www/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php on line 565

Warning: gzwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/vhosts/vinodr/public_html/www/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php on line 568

Warning: gzwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/vhosts/vinodr/public_html/www/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php on line 565

I'm getting this error when i run the site map generator please help