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

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.

[rjmjr69]

After searching thru this whole entire thread I could not find the RIGHT information to submit the information to YAHOO you must include the .gz


http://www.YOURSITEURL/sitemap.txt.gz

Great hack runs awesome with 3.6.4 very easy to install

[Sam1985]

In plain terms what is the difference between this and the paid version?

I'm confused.

[Adrian Schneider]

vbSEO itself does a ton of other things, the most obvious being the URL rewriting. The sitemap is a free add-on which just handles sitemap generation.

Go to their website for more info...

http://www.vbseo.com/

[verbs]

Originally Posted by dizzy100

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/

I'm had the exact same problem as you. The sitemap is uploaded into my forums folder....

I'm running php 4.x.x, and my server does support mod re-write. I have VB 3.6.4


I also tried all 3 .htaccess templates listed in this thread too, quad's worked.


Below is the htaccess file I currently have loaded in my public html, and I used quadinfotech's suggestions, which worked!


I uploaded: http://www.mysite.com/sitemap_1.xml.gz to http://www.mysite.com

Hope this helps!

[Dan@TT]

I'm having some issues with vbseo sitemap. i've installed the plugin in my admincp, protected it with a password since i want to run it manually but when I run the vbseo_sitemap.php , it does create a sitemap but here's what I got

[homepage] [2,373.8Kb mem used] [0s (+0)]
[SECTION START] forumdisplay [2,373.8Kb mem used] [0s (+0)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 1, total threads: 0, pages: 1 [2,373.9Kb mem used] [0s (+0)]
[forumdisplay] forum_id: 2, total threads: 0, pages: 1 [2,373.9Kb mem used] [0s (+0)]

any more lines.

the ideea is: in forum_id:1 , I have threads, not 0 , because it's not an empty forum. what made vbseo_sitemap to think the forum is empty ?

[verbs]

Originally Posted by verbs

I'm had the exact same problem as you. The sitemap is uploaded into my forums folder....

I'm running php 4.x.x, and my server does support mod re-write. I have VB 3.6.4


I also tried all 3 .htaccess templates listed in this thread too, quad's worked.


Below is the htaccess file I currently have loaded in my public html, and I used quadinfotech's suggestions, which worked!


I uploaded: http://www.mysite.com/sitemap_1.xml.gz to http://www.mysite.com

Hope this helps!

Ugh, I just realized it's not automatically submitting for yahoo now

I had to play with the sitemap about 7 times to get it to finally work for google, and through my trial and error I got it to work for yahoo once, but don't remember what I did.

Based on the above information in my previous post, why would this not be working for yahoo, but working fine for yahoo?

I have all my information in the AdminCP settings correct I think, with the only thing I want to double check on is my Sitemap Files URL which I have listed as :

./forums/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap.php




I've also attached my VBSEO Sitemap report showing it once worked for yahoo, but now doesn't. For some reason I think the only time I got it to work for Yahoo was when the .htaccess file was in the forums folder...but I don't remember now

Any help would be appreciated.

[marshill]

the moment I FTP the .htaccess file, the entire /forums directory fails with an IIS error. is there anyway at all to get this thing to work without needing the .htaccess file, or is there a workaround? Isn't .htaccess a unix thing? My website is hosted in IIS on Win 2003.

[ConqSoft]

Originally Posted by marshill

the moment I FTP the .htaccess file, the entire /forums directory fails with an IIS error. is there anyway at all to get this thing to work without needing the .htaccess file, or is there a workaround? Isn't .htaccess a unix thing? My website is hosted in IIS on Win 2003.

IIS doesn't support .htaccess files. You'll need ISAPI_Rewrite to handle the rewrite rules.

[marshill]

forgive me for not being as saavy as I should...but is that a server-based install? My ISP controls the server. Is that something I need to talk to them about?

[ConqSoft]

Originally Posted by marshill

forgive me for not being as saavy as I should...but is that a server-based install? My ISP controls the server. Is that something I need to talk to them about?

Yes. If you're not on a dedicated server, you will have to contact your host.