Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator

vBulletin Google Sitemaps by vBSEO v.2.5 - vBulletin 3.7.x
Download vB 3.8.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.6.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
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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?
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• 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
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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

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

• 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.

[veenuisthebest]

A tip:-

I noticed we can easily link it with Google webmasters account so that we do not need to submit it their manually everytime.

1. First make sure you're .htaccess is working fine and sitemaps are generated.

2. Simply sign to Google Webmasters -> Dashboard -> Sitemaps -> Add General Web Sitemap -> and give your sitemap URL as http://www.yoursite.com/forum/sitemap_index.xml.gz and Add it.

This way your sitemap would automatically be updated.

3. You can do the same thing with Yahoo Site Explorer.

Go to Yahoo Site Explorer -> My Sites -> Manage -> and Add Website Feed as http://www.yoursite.com/forum/sitemap_index.xml.gz

Yahoo doesn't update/download sitemap automatically, so all you need to do is to Select your feed and click "Resubmit".

[iojam]

veenuisthebest,

try to replace "if(!vbseo_dbtbl_exists('album') || !function_exists('vbseo_album_url_row'))" with "if(!vbseo_dbtbl_exists('album'))" in vbseo_sitemap_functions.php file.

[Fireproof]

Originally Posted by veenuisthebest

They won't be copied to forums directory.

Do you have the .htaccess in your forums root ? I don't think "RewriteEngine On" is required two times.

Okay - I didn't think two were required, but wasn't sure if it had to be right next to the next line. I told you I'm a newbie.

I have the .htaccess file in my forums root, yes.

Regarding "they won't be copied to your forums directory" - then what is the rewrite actually doing? And what path should I be telling google my sitemaps reside in? I have it set right now to http://www.clutchfitness.com/forums/...p_index.xml.gz, and then after I manually run the sitemap generator, and it returns the link to the sitemap, I click on it and get this error:

Not Found

The requested URL /forums/forums/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

If the .htaccess file is located IN the mysite.com/forums directory does that mean I do NOT need the .htaccess file to have "forums" in it, like this:

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

Or should it still have forums in it, like this?

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

Sorry I'm so confused, but I know I can get this to work.

[veenuisthebest]

yes you do not need "forums" in it. As you can see your sitemap URL http://www.clutchfitness.com/forums/...p_index.xml.gz works fine.

But the one you're requesting is /forums/forums/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php (note the "forums" twice)

Remove forums from .htaccess and you're done.

[Fireproof]

Originally Posted by veenuisthebest

yes you do not need "forums" in it. As you can see your sitemap URL http://www.clutchfitness.com/forums/...p_index.xml.gz works fine.

But the one you're requesting is /forums/forums/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php (note the "forums" twice)

Remove forums from .htaccess and you're done.

Ahhhh...thank you. I think I have it working now.

[veenuisthebest]

Originally Posted by iojam

veenuisthebest,

try to replace "if(!vbseo_dbtbl_exists('album') || !function_exists('vbseo_album_url_row'))" with "if(!vbseo_dbtbl_exists('album'))" in vbseo_sitemap_functions.php file.

"if(!vbseo_dbtbl_exists('album') || !function_exists('vbseo_album_url_row'))" doesn't exist in vbseo_sitemap_functions.php

all what I had added in the file was this

if(!function_exists('vbseo_group_url_row')){functi on vbseo_group_url_row(){}}
if(!function_exists('vbseo_tags_url')){function vbseo_tags_url(){}}
if(!function_exists('vbseo_album_url_row')){functi on vbseo_album_url_row(){}}

[iojam]

Can you PM me your admincp access to check this?

[ahmedzbeda]

Im a using the vbseo 3.1.0 version .. with vb 3.7.3

and i dont want to upgrade vbseo right now to 3.2.0 ..

my question is ...

can i install this version of generator on 3.1.0 ? and what could happen if i cant do so ?

[arena]

Show Reports List menu Not working

[AzzX]

Been using with no issue for a couple of weeks - Now I am getting this error in Google Webmaster tools:

Unsupported file format
Your Sitemap does not appear to be in a supported format. Please ensure it meets our Sitemap guidelines and resubmit. Help Help
Problem detected on: Sep 11, 2008