vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator for vBulletin 3.6.x, 3.5.x & 3.0.x

vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator - vBulletin 3.5.x
Download vB 3.8.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.7.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.6.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

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

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

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

We welcome you to join the vBSEO Affiliate Program.

[dizzy100]

Actually i do get something pointing my browser at

http://mysite/forums/sitemap.txt

I get Sitemap file not found printed on screen. Ironically, as i say, the sitemap.txt.gz is in the data directory. So whats that all about ?

[Omerr]

Hi guys.
I'm not sure I'm getting it... Is this free to use? On your website it says 160$ and here it's available... Any explanation?
Thanks!

[da420]

^ that software offers url rewrite and other SEO functionality... this is just a site map...

[bulbasnore]

for our install of the cmps addon I had to set:

PHP Code:

        $vba_url = 'http://oursite.com'; 


Since our cmps lives at the top level and our forums live in a subdirectory at

http://oursite.com/forums/

Also, since the forums live in a subdirectory, our rerwrite at the top level had to look like:

PHP Code:

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


The sitemap_index generates xml with submap urls that include /forums/ so we had to account for that with second line.

[amagazi]

EDIT: How do I get this program to write the file to http://www.mysite.com/forums/sitemap_index.xml.gz?

[shaynehammy]

Originally Posted by quadinfotech

I installed this product on 3.6.4 with no problems whatsoever,
I have installed vbulletin in /forum folder and I'm also running vbadvanced in the root,

to get this to work properly there's only one change that had to be done in the .htaccess file. You need to add these lines to your .htaccess file in your public_html root not your forum root,

public_html/.htaccess file should have these two lines:

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

if you have installed your vbulletin in any other folder just replace that with "forum" in the line above.

If you have installed your vbulletin forum in your public_html root then you don't need any modifications to be made. the included .htaccess file will work just fine.

when you go to google to add your site you need to add the domain and not the domain + forum folder, so yours will look like this:

http://www.yourdomain.com

again do not add the "/forum" to the end of this address.

Now you wanna add your site map enter this line but replace "yourdomain.com" with your own address:

http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap_1.xml.gz

when google searches for that file in that address your .htaccess file will redirect its request to the appropriate location which is

http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/vbseo_sitemap/sitemap_1.xml.gz

I hope this helps clear out some of the confusion out there and maybe the writers can add this bit to their description on the first post if it's valid.
also would help to mention that this works for 3.6.x as well,
Thank you for sharing this wonderful mod.

I did exactly as you said. I'm just a little confused as to how the gz files move from vbseo_sitemap/data to vbseo_sitemap/ Do we manually have to move them ourselves?

Edit. Another question. Getting this error from Google

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.

Trying to add the sitemap http://www.thechiefbaboon.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz
I definitely added my top domain to google as my forum is installed under /forums. I edited .htacess to include "forums" in it as you said above. Anyone any ideas please?

[iojam]

I have had the same problem.. Is there any way to have this submit these maps to the root instead of the data directory??

Actually i do get something pointing my browser at

http://mysite/forums/sitemap.txt

I get Sitemap file not found printed on screen. Ironically, as i say, the sitemap.txt.gz is in the data directory. So whats that all about ?

I did exactly as you said. I'm just a little confused as to how the gz files move from vbseo_sitemap/data to vbseo_sitemap/ Do we manually have to move them ourselves?

Although files are stored in vbseo_sitemap/data/ folder, they are accessed as http://youforumsroot/sitemap_index.xml.gz using mod_rewrite rules.
Make sure that you uploaded .htaccess file and your server supports mod_rewrite.

[turkerm]

Hello, I don't have vBSEO but I installed another hack that makes my URLs like thread123.html

Is it possible for me to modify code or settings to adjust URLs like that?

****

Edit: I just found it. Changing vbseo_sitemap_functions just worked!

[dizzy100]

Originally Posted by iojam

Although files are stored in vbseo_sitemap/data/ folder, they are accessed as http://youforumsroot/sitemap_index.xml.gz using mod_rewrite rules.
Make sure that you uploaded .htaccess file and your server supports mod_rewrite.

I have everything as you have it in your instructions and on accessing mysite/sitemap_index.xml.gz i see the google sitemap xml displayed (my forums are in a subforum of forums/ ).

However as expressed before, doing the same with mysite//sitemap.txt gets a Sitemap file not found message printed yet i can access the sitemap.txt.gz at mysite/forums/vbseo_sitemap/data/

[itsblack]

I updated my PHP server to the newest version 5.2.1 several days ago, and the mod stopped working. When I run the task it just displays blank pages.

I've tried re-upload all the php files, but it doesn't help.

What can I do? Please do me a favor.