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

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

We welcome you to join the vBSEO Affiliate Program.

[iojam]

Yes, that is correct.

[mariocaz]

Perfect,

Yes now is working!!!

Summary:
============================
Forum Display: 231
Show Thread: 7497
Show Post: 55376
Member Profiles: 1379
Poll Results: 28
Archive: 3959

Total Indexed URLs: 68471
Total Processing Time: 23.39 seconds

Google ping: Successful.
Yahoo ping: Successful.
Ask ping: Successful.
Moreover ping: Successful.

And how do you see it ? is working good in my board ??

thank you very much again!!

[iojam]

From the report it looks like sitemap is generated successfully.

[mariocaz]

thank you a lot iojam

[jim6763nva]

Originally Posted by Mark.B

Not quite, but if you hasve submitted your sitemap to Google, Yahoo etc then you should start to see an increase in spidering activity and better indexing of your site in the search engines.

It's not instant though...it can take many months to improve, but it will almost definitely improve.

Cool Beans! Yeah, I've definitely seen a huge increase in spider activity. Lastnight I had 22 spiders on there just crawlin their butts off. lol

Everytime something is updated on the site now, another spider jumps on there. The only problem I'm having is I can't seem to upload my sitemap to Google or Yahoo. Seems they are expecting an xml file and all I see are compressed files sitting on my site.


Jim

[iojam]

Both Google and Yahoo support gzipped xml sitemaps, what is the error you get when submitting http://yourforumsroot/sitemap_index.xml.gz ?

[Pebbled]

Thanks iojam, I've finally gotten it working from the homepage rather than the forum after a bit of help from my hosting company who took a look at what I had done and moved the .htaccess file as per your instructions to the forum like you said

Then I added ANOTHER .htaccess file in the root folder using the following code (as you suggested)

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

(NOTE: change the forums/ to whatever you are using and NOT the whole domain name)

Once I did this I went into the ADMIN CP > vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator and added the Sitemap Files URL to http://www.example.com then regenerated the sitemap

Have also gone to the Google Webmaster tools site and added the URL successfully using http://www.example.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz

I was originally failing because I was missing the point that I needed an .htaccess file in both the forum AND the root folder for this to work.

[Pebbled]

One question regarding the robots.txt file

In my particular instance where the sitemap is to all intensive purposes for the search engines in the root directory so that the sitemap starts from the homepage and not the directory http://www.examplesite.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz

Do I add the line of code at the bottom of the robots.txt file to read:

Sitemap: http://www.examplesite.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz

To anyone wondering why I wish to add the sitemap position in the robots.txt file, this is a way to tell the search engines where the sitemap is if you have one.

[Pebbled]

OK then, I've submitted the sitemap to Google webmaster central and have received this message:
-------------------------------------
Sitemap summary

Sitemap type: Web
Submitted 20-Mar-2008
Last downloaded by Google 20-Mar-2008
Total URLs in Sitemap 30173
Indexed URLs in Sitemap: No data available. Please check again soon.
Sitemap errors and warnings
No errors or warnings found.

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
--------------------------------------
Any ideas why sitemap_2.xml.gz is OK but sitemap_1.xml.gz shows this error?

[GTX2]

i'm always getting this error when browsing www.mydomain.com/vbseo_sitemap:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function vbseo_startup() in /home/user/public_html/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php on line 56

Tried to disable vbseo but problem persist. Tried to change the previous suggestion of blog.php, but nothing:

Find:

vbseo_add_url(vbseo_any_url($vbseo_vars['bburl'].'/blog.php') , 1.0);

Replace with:

vbseo_add_url(VBSEO_ON ? vbseo_any_url($vbseo_vars['bburl'].'/blog.php') : $vbseo_vars['bburl'].'/blog.php', 1.0);

Any hint?