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?

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

• 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
============================

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

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.

[passwords]

no im talking about the sitemap one .. you can see it here

[Tact7626]

hello. hoping to get some help. i hope my question isn't too complicated and has an easy fix.

i don't think this mod is working correctly and i'd like to know if someone could help figure out where i messed up so i can correct it and have it working properly.

heres my htaccess which is in my forum root which i got from the mod zip file.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^((urllist|sitemap).*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1 [L]

i copied over this same file over to my normal /root directory just in case.

i followed the instructions contained within the file as carefully as i could, and double checked everything. but am still are unsure of myself because i get 404 errors when i go into the admincp to check the sitemap reports and click on "show sitemap downloads log" and "Your Google Sitemap Index URL: http://legionofangels.net/forum/sitemap_index.xml.gz
" which i have no idea why they are there because whenever the cron job runs and outputs the file, its ALWAYS inside:

/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data


would greatly appreciate it if someone could tell me what i did wrong. and if someone could help me to further test my setup to convince me beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it is indeed working and doing what its supopsed to be doing.

thanks you very much.

[wacnstac]

I get 404 errors as well as soon as I change the .htaccess file for this mod.

[BrotherX]

Originally Posted by DiesellMinded

I had to uninstall this My server does not allow changes in the .htaccesss file

DM

Originally Posted by wacnstac

I get 404 errors as well as soon as I change the .htaccess file for this mod.

Almost the same with me. I have my forum in root directory. When I was add those two lines in htacces, I get SERVER ERROR in admin CP. Of course I had htaccess before becouase with him I regulate which php version I will use, becouase I have more option.

Even didn't came to the step where I must install thing. I was changed htaccess, after that I get server error, edited htaccess, deleted all thing? So this thing, cannot work with custom htaccess file?

[mikeinjersey]

I noticed in my apache error logs that it seems that google bot is being denied access. I have my /data/ folder 777 ... any ideas?

[Fri Sep 28 01:09:22 2007] [error] [client 66.249.66.44] PHP Warning: fopen(/home/user/www/mysite.com/vbseo_sitemap/data/ downloads.dat) [<a href='function.fopen'>function.fopen</a>]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/user/www/mysite.com/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_gets itemap.php on line 48

[Fri Sep 28 01:09:22 2007] [error] [client 66.249.66.44] PHP Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/user/www/mysite.com/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_gets itemap.php on line 49

[Fri Sep 28 01:09:22 2007] [error] [client 66.249.66.44] PHP Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/user/www/mysite.com/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_gets itemap.php on line 50

[iojam]

mikeinjersey,

make sure that downloads.dat file has 0666 permissions.

[mikeinjersey]

Originally Posted by iojam

mikeinjersey,

make sure that downloads.dat file has 0666 permissions.

How come when the sitemap generator is run, it always creates it at 0644 ? Why does it need to be 0666? cant they still read it at 644?

[Tact7626]

Originally Posted by Tact7626

hello. hoping to get some help. i hope my question isn't too complicated and has an easy fix.

i don't think this mod is working correctly and i'd like to know if someone could help figure out where i messed up so i can correct it and have it working properly.

heres my htaccess which is in my forum root which i got from the mod zip file.



i copied over this same file over to my normal /root directory just in case.

i followed the instructions contained within the file as carefully as i could, and double checked everything. but am still are unsure of myself because i get 404 errors when i go into the admincp to check the sitemap reports and click on "show sitemap downloads log" and "Your Google Sitemap Index URL: http://legionofangels.net/forum/sitemap_index.xml.gz
" which i have no idea why they are there because whenever the cron job runs and outputs the file, its ALWAYS inside:

/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data


would greatly appreciate it if someone could tell me what i did wrong. and if someone could help me to further test my setup to convince me beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it is indeed working and doing what its supopsed to be doing.

thanks you very much.

perhaps at least leading me to a previous page if this was already answerd would be greatly appreciated it. thank you again.

[mikeinjersey]

Tact, If you have vbSEO installed, the support over there is much more instant. (vbseo.com) They have a support area too where u can fill out a ticket.

Your sitemap appears to be showing up correctly.

Did you chmod 777 the /data/ folder within your /vbseo_sitemap/ ? All the data and log files go into the /data/ folder.

[iojam]

mikeinjersey,

How come when the sitemap generator is run, it always creates it at 0644 ? Why does it need to be 0666? cant they still read it at 644?

In case if userid of the file owner matches userid of php process, 0644 would be enough. However, userids are ofen changed during host move/transfer.