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

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


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?
============================

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"
============================

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

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

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

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

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

We welcome you to join the vBSEO Affiliate Program.

[varkjie]

Originally Posted by varkjie

oopps should I delete it? I got an error 404 page before

I just checked the uploaded file and it doesn't work so yeah!

so where do I begin to fix this?

[iojam]

varkjie,

try to remove sitemap files from forums folder, create .htaccess as described, regenerate sitemaps via vbseo_sitemap/ interface and try to open http://yourforumsroot/sitemap_index.xml.gz in browser.

nirvana43,

you should change this:

Sitemap: http://www.mysitename.com/vbseo_site...p_index.xml.gz
Sitemap: http://www.mysitename.com/vbseo_site...urllist.txt.gz

to:

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

Also, is your sitemap working for you when opened in browser?

[nirvana43]

Originally Posted by iojam

varkjie,

try to remove sitemap files from forums folder, create .htaccess as described, regenerate sitemaps via vbseo_sitemap/ interface and try to open http://yourforumsroot/sitemap_index.xml.gz in browser.

nirvana43,

you should change this:

to:


Also, is your sitemap working for you when opened in browser?

ok i did that change but still its not working sir. When i try to open sitemap in browser, it shows me this :

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.

−
	<sitemapindex xsi:schemaLocation="             http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9             http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/09/siteindex.xsd">
−
	<sitemap>
<loc>http://www.mysitename.com/sitemap_1.xml.gz</loc>
<lastmod>2008-04-05T08:01:04+00:00</lastmod>
</sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

where i'm missing sir??

[rule0]

Originally Posted by nirvana43

ok i did that change but still its not working sir. When i try to open sitemap in browser, it shows me this :
*snip*
where i'm missing sir??

Although I couldnt manage to get vbseositemap working, I can say with my previous sitemap creation experience, your sitemap file seems normal. sitemap_index is an index file as name says. it includes the location of sitemap files. and it really does, it points to sitemap_1 file.
I've seen some software or seo pros do that. an example sitemap_index file could include:
sitemap_forums.xml.gz
sitemap_threads.xml.gz
etc.

So yours seem normal. Did you try to open
sitemap_1.xml.gz
on your browser? try that.

[nirvana43]

Originally Posted by rule0

Although I couldnt manage to get vbseositemap working, I can say with my previous sitemap creation experience, your sitemap file seems normal. sitemap_index is an index file as name says. it includes the location of sitemap files. and it really does, it points to sitemap_1 file.
I've seen some software or seo pros do that. an example sitemap_index file could include:
sitemap_forums.xml.gz
sitemap_threads.xml.gz
etc.

So yours seem normal. Did you try to open
sitemap_1.xml.gz
on your browser? try that.

ohh yeah!! its working man!! but then whats the problem with google webmaster sitemap submission thing??? its saying robots.txt is unreachable. And also my question is why none of my forum threads are getting crawled by google or any of the search engine??? where i'm missing???
thank you for reply sir.

[rule0]

Originally Posted by nirvana43

ohh yeah!! its working man!! but then whats the problem with google webmaster sitemap submission thing??? its saying robots.txt is unreachable. And also my question is why none of my forum threads are getting crawled by google or any of the search engine??? where i'm missing???
thank you for reply sir.

in google webmaster tools:
1) click TOOLS to expand menu
2) click Analyze robots.txt
3) paste your robots.txt file there
4) click the check button

maybe it says where's the problem. also i'd try removing the sitemap: lines from the robots.txt and try that.

I assume you are able to open www.YourSite.com/robots.txt on your browser succesfully.

[rule0]

Originally Posted by nirvana43

And also my question is why none of my forum threads are getting crawled by google or any of the search engine??? where i'm missing???
thank you for reply sir.

my guess for google not crawling;
google has, i dunno, maybe millions of sites to crawl, so it has its priorities. Even if you submit your site to google for indexing it may take long time. if your site has links from important, high ranked sites, i'm sure it will be crawled soon after it sees the links. And its always fast. If no links, than sitemap is one of the helpers. It's worth the effort. After that, it's up to your site's content update frequency.

[varkjie]

Originally Posted by iojam

varkjie,

try to remove sitemap files from forums folder, create .htaccess as described, regenerate sitemaps via vbseo_sitemap/ interface and try to open http://yourforumsroot/sitemap_index.xml.gz in browser.

I have the .htaccess folder, but I just deleted everything and reuploaded from scratch and this is what I see http://www.coupontradercentral.com/c...p_index.xml.gz
is that what the page is suppose to look like?

[GoTTi]

my site is already submitted to yahoo, do i have to submit the www.site.com again or should i submit the forum this time around, www.site.com/forums/ or should i submit a direct link to one of the xml.gz files that has been created?

thanks.

ps...

i do not have vbseo. do i need vbseo for this to work?

[GoTTi]

i am also seeing, like usual, a lot of these in my users online area:

crawl-66-249-67-184.googlebot.com

and

lj513278.crawl.yahoo.net

arent these now suppose to download or read the xml.gz file because i do not see any traffic under the "Sitemap Downloads Log" area.