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
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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.

[blackberry]

Originally Posted by Cloudrunner

That is normal if you have any forums that are being ignored by the generator. If you have forums added to the exclude area you will see less than what you really have. Run the generator again and see if it raises. If you are not running vBSEO in conjunction with this addon as well, make sure the first option on the settings page is set to "NO". If it is set to "YES" and you don't have vBSEO installed you'll run into strange things with the generator.

Can you link me your sitemap_index.xml.gz?

i dont have any excluded forums .. dont know why getting more than original show threads thingy

[Cloudrunner]

Originally Posted by donnie_ogm

stupid question?
I've searched in the thread but I haven't understood if is possible via .htaccess or not.

To do that you would need to hardcode the .htaccess for every page, and then redo vbulletin to spit out those rewritten URLs so that the .htaccess has somewhere to redirect folks to.

Wait, there's already something that does that, it's ... wait for it ... vBSEO.

Sorry, wasn't really picking fun, just had a sarcastic moment there. Seriously though, to do what you are asking to do you would need vBSEO installed and running. To my knowledge the other SEO mods are not compatible with this mod as the sitemaps will be generated with your .php settings (vBSEO not installed) or your vBSEO settings only.

[thincom2000]

Since recent Google acts have resulted in my site dropping from 1200 indexed pages to 300, and a lot of important content pages were missing (pretty much only tag pages were in the index now), I gave in and tried this mod again.

Previously I was disappointed that there were no hooks or anything for me to modify URLs. I have some custom mods that use forum and thread tables, but have non-showthread URLs. Because of this, last time we just made our own sitemap manually, so it included only the most important pages.

This time around I spent about 3 hours doing file edits and making this work with Project Tools, which also accounts for a large portion of our site.

I guess I'll see if it works for us. The first generated sitemap has about 5000 URLs.

I suspect we lost a bunch of indexed pages recently because it's possible Google sandboxed us -- we released a product with a copyright link, so suddenly 980,000 links to the product page appeared on the web within 1 or 2 days -- which was way more linkbacks than we had to all other pages combined.

[wswsh]

thanxx
wswsh.net

[iardon]

Originally Posted by vBsquad

I'm running version 2.5 but it seems the scheduled task does not run. When I run it manually it runs fine and sends out the email as normal.

Any help is appreciated.

Yep, same here. Anybody have a fix?

[Yellow Slider]

I'm getting 2 errors in the google webmsater site,

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.
Problem detected on: Oct 12, 2009

and

Network unreachable: robots.txt unreachable
We were unable to crawl your Sitemap because we found a robots.txt file at the root of your site but were unable to download it. Please ensure that it is accessible or remove it completely.

I can access both my robots.txt file and the sitemap files -
here - http://www.iatraf.co.il/sitemap_1.xml.gz
http://www.iatraf.co.il/sitemap_index.xml.gz
http://www.iatraf.co.il/robots.txt

what do you think I need to do? I've reinstalled it and generated the files again, but google bots can't download them (I do have google bots on my site, average of 5 bots all the time)

Thanks.

[iardon]

Originally Posted by iardon

Yep, same here. Anybody have a fix?

I applied the changes detailed in the post below and now it's working, go figure.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=387

[donnie_ogm]

Originally Posted by Cloudrunner

To do that you would need to hardcode the .htaccess for every page, and then redo vbulletin to spit out those rewritten URLs so that the .htaccess has somewhere to redirect folks to.

Wait, there's already something that does that, it's ... wait for it ... vBSEO.

Sorry, wasn't really picking fun, just had a sarcastic moment there. Seriously though, to do what you are asking to do you would need vBSEO installed and running. To my knowledge the other SEO mods are not compatible with this mod as the sitemaps will be generated with your .php settings (vBSEO not installed) or your vBSEO settings only.

Aahah don't worry and thank you for the answer...

[thincom2000]

Once I figured out how to write my own addons for this, I was quite pleased with the results.

I had some mods like VaultWiki and CES Site News which use customized forumdisplay and showthread URLs. Using global_setup_complete to update the "exclude forums" option, I was able to save those forums until the addons ran, so resources weren't wasted and 2 versions of their links weren't added.

Also, I had to write an addon for Project Tools, because apparently there wasn't one. Depending how many people actually need that, I may contribute it, but it currently has my custom URL format (/projects/id/, /issues/id/, /milestones/id/) hardcoded.

[MagicThemeParks]

What are the steps to take if you're consistently getting a "FAILED" on one of the search engines?