Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator

vBSEO Search Engine XML Sitemap 3.0
We are extremely pleased to inform the vBulletin.org community that a fully revamped version of the vBSEO Search Engine XML Sitemap (previously "vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator") v.3.0, is being released to all licensed vBulletin users effective immediately!

Note: The NEW vBSEO Search Engine XML Sitemap 3.0 replaces all previous versions of the "vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator", and includes support for all the new URL types in vBulletin 4.x.

New in the vBSEO Search Engine XML Sitemap v.3.0
The new sitemap alters the way data is structured in fundamental ways. Sitemap 3.0 segments different content areas into separate files, so you end up with a unique set of files per content type: forums, blogs, cms, groups, albums, members, tags, etc. In addition, the new sitemap has an extended priority feature that utilizes the built in 'weight' tool of the vBulletin XML sitemap generator for individual forums, CMS sections and articles to act as a multiplier.

We believe these changes are responsible for delivering increased returns for a number of forums from customers and testers we've been tracking. Please track your own progress via your Google Webmaster tools account, Google Analytics or Gravity Insights.

A Clean and Beautiful Interface
The new sitemap also features a clean and beautiful interface, built from the ground up. We believe it reflects the quality, precision and attention to detail placed into each aspect of this release. We are passionate about building software, and great software is beautiful inside, and out.

Overview
============================

The "vBSEO Search Engine XML Sitemap" plugin provides an easy to use solution that allows your forum to be indexed by all major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask, 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 3.5.x versions. The current version is vBSEO 3.5.2. If you are running vBSEO, please upgrade to vBSEO 3.5.2 (or greater) before installing for optimal results.

Compatibility
============================

Fully compatible with:

• vBulletin 3.8.x, 4.0.x, 4.1.x
• vBulletin Blogs *Optional
• vBulletin CMS *Optional
• vBSEO 3.5.2 + higher *Optional

What does it do?
============================

• Auto-generates an XML sitemap for all of your specified forum URL types (including vBulletin Blog & CMS URLs).
• NEW! Groups forum areas into individual sitemaps grouped by section type for greater flexibility, for example:
  • sitemap_forum_X.xml.gz
  • sitemap_tags_X.xml.gz
  • sitemap_cms_X.xml.gz
• Auto-notifies Search Engines when a new sitemap is generated (optional)
• Automatically sends you a summary of the sitemap generation via email each time it is created (optional)
• Includes only publicly accessible forums and threads and includes the option of not including any specific public forums
• Allows Search Engines to find all of your forum URLs without having to spider the forum to find the links. Great for Deep Page linking!
• Allows Search Engines to find your forum URLs without having to account for query string and/or session ID information.
• Allows Search Engines to give precedence to crawling your higher priority forum pages.
• Allows Search Engines 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, Yahoo Slurp, Ask's Teoma, Bing's msnbot, and other search engine bots.
• Is 100% compatible with the static CRUs (Content Relevant URLs) used by vBSEO-enabled forums.
• Is 100% compatible with the 'Friendly URLs' offered default with vb4.x.

How does it work?
============================

Whenever it is scheduled or invoked via the URL, this plugin will generate an XML formatted that search engines are able to read and parse. If you selected "Yes" to the Auto-notification setting, The 4 major search engines will be notified each time the sitemap is generated.

• Google Sitemap files are gzipped for space savings
• 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 -> vBSEO -> vBSEO Sitemap Settings
  

Once you successfully login, you will see a number of tabs. Here are the 4 main links:

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.

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 (Identified by the Bot's name) 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.

Search Engine Bots Activity Log
Use it to track Search engine activity on your sitemaps. This area displays how often, and what volume of pages search engines visit your site on a daily basis.

Run Generator
The 'Run Sitemap Generator' link will automatically regenerate your vBSEO Search Engine XML Site sitemaps.

Additional Links
Additional links to various other related Search Engine/SEO resources are also included.

Click "Install"
============================
Please click "Mark as Installed" to show your support for this script.

Installation, Upgrade, & Configuration
============================
Follow the installation/upgrade instructions provided in the docs/readme.html file.

Webmaster Accounts
============================
It is NOT required for you to have a Webmaster account on the search engines' websites to run the plugin, however, we recommend everyone set one up for tracking purposes.

• Google Webmaster Central. Get data about crawling, indexing and search traffic. Increase traffic to your site.
• Bing Toolbox
• https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

Copyright & Licensing
============================

• vBSEO Search Engine XML Sitemap 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) ? 2010 Crawlability, Inc.

Revision History
============================

11/11/2010 - Version 3.0 Released
Compatible with vB3.7.x+ and vB4.x+
NEW FEATURE: All CMS URLs are supported
NEW FEATURE: Sitemap Groups by content type
NEW FEATURE: Enhanced layout and design of the Sitemap Generator Control Panel
NEW FEATURE: XSL Style sheet of the xml files for easier human reading
NEW FEATURE: Extended Priority. Utilizes the built in 'weight' tool of the vBulletin XML generator for all content areas (Forums, Blogs, CMS, Albums, etc.) to act as a multiplier. (vb4 Suite only)

Other vBSEO Plugins
============================

• vBSEO - vBulletin Search Engine Optimization

vBSEO Affiliate Program
============================
We welcome you to join the vBSEO Affiliate Program.

[New-Age]

Originally Posted by New-Age View Post

The below was sent to me however when I click the link http://www.new-age.net.au/forums/ind...vbseo_sitemap/

It directs me to my forum page less some images -
Is this normal?

No. What do you mean it was sent to you? By what or whom?

By email from below:

vBSEO(TM) c 2005-2009 Crawlability, Inc.
http://www.crawlability.com/vbseo
http://www.vbseo.com


Originally Posted by New-Age View Post

The vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap has been successfully generated for your vBulletin forums at:
New Age Forums (http://www.new-age.net.au/forums/index.php)

This is the link you use and report to Google, etc.

However, the actual location will be redirected by an .htaccess file mod_rewrite. Did you add the required lines to your .htaccess file?

I could not find the .htaccess file in my files of vBulletin Forum so I uploaded the htaccess file
from the htaccess folder in vbseo_sitemap- 2-5

[iojam]

Black Tiger,

yes, you should apply the same fix.

Chris!,

you can try to create robots.txt file in domain root with:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /external.php

[Black Tiger]

Thanks Chris.
But it would be very nice if the files too would be upgraded so with the next upgrade everything will go ok.

[Come2Daddy]

I don't get it.

Actually, I installed it so my forums urls would change into .html instead of .php
but I don't see niether this nor vbseo brand on the footer of my forum

is my situation as it should be?? or I should install some other plugins??

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by Come2Daddy

I don't get it.

Actually, I installed it so my forums urls would change into .html instead of .php
but I don't see niether this nor vbseo brand on the footer of my forum

is my situation as it should be?? or I should install some other plugins??

This isn't vBSEO - that is a paid product you can find at http://www.vbseo.com

This is a free and independent add-on by the people who created vBSEO. All it does it generate sitemaps for search engines. It doesn't rewrite URLS or do anything else except the sitemap.

[Come2Daddy]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

This isn't vBSEO - that is a paid product you can find at http://www.vbseo.com

This is a free and independent add-on by the people who created vBSEO. All it does it generate sitemaps for search engines. It doesn't rewrite URLS or do anything else except the sitemap.

I see

thank u buddy

[vbplusme]

I am wondering what the recommended "exclude" list is for this sitemap? How does it handle/manage duplicate content?

[Ogmuk]

For those without Apache, ISAPI_Rewrite 3 Lite's httpd.conf can block direct access to the data directory this way:

#Deny all 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/ 
RewriteRule .? - [F]

The thing works fine on my test forum but I'm getting an error when running it on my live server:

[create sitemap file] filename: sitemap_27.xml.gz, number of urls: 19334 [3,470.2Kb mem used] [291s (+0s)]
[create sitemap in text format] part #28 [3,470.1Kb mem used] [291s (+0s)]
[create sitemap index] filename: sitemap_index.xml.gz, number of sitemaps: 27 [3,474.4Kb mem used] [291s (+0s)]

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 16777216 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 36363178 bytes) in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\mydomain.com\httpdocs\forum\vbseo_sitemap\vbseo_sitemap_functions.php on line 1537

I'll try increasing the PHP Memory Limit in php.ini.


EDIT: Yeah, it worked fine when increasing the memory to 48mb.

I'm pretty sure it's being caused by urllist.txt.gz, which is precisely that size. No way to make it create it in parts and then, when it's done, merge the parts together? That way it would work for those who do not have access to php.ini. This way I'll need to keep increasing my memory as my board gets bigger.

Bug:

Generate Yahoo-Compatible Text Sitemap
Select "Yes" to automatically generate a text format sitemap with 1 URL per line.

This text sitemap must be manually submitted to Yahoo at http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request/.

Should be: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit?


Feedback:
MSN is not listed as bot in Sitemap Downloads Log: msnbot-webmaster/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)

[hamid.park]

i have installed this Mod , But When I want to submit sittemaps , i Got 403 Forbiden error .
I Have Copyed Sotemaps to Forums Root Folder , But Then I Got 404 Can not Find error .
When I Type Sitemapp Url In Broeser It Will Open , But Gogle return 404 . Why this Happen ?!
data folder is 777

[Ogmuk]

You shouldn't copy or move the data to the forum root. That's what the htaccess is for:

Note: If you already have an .htaccess file in your forum root, DO NOT upload the vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap .htaccess file as it will replace the contents of this file. Instead, enter the following code in your 'forum-root/.htaccess' file at the bottom:

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

If you have IIS instead of Apache, then use ISAPI_Rewrite 3 Lite but since you're getting forbidden errors it looks like the htaccess files are working for you. Once you submit, then use this link: http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/sitemap_index.xml.gz - and not http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/sitemap_index.xml.gz - because that will give a forbidden error. The first link will redirect the search engine to the second link (because of the htaccess file) and it will not give a forbidden error.