Vbulletin Sitemap Actually Conflicts With Canonical Urls Preventing Proper Indexing

[mykkal]

Is there a way to fix the vbulletin sitemap so that it returns the value of the Canonical Url? There is a thread on vBulletin.com which talks about vBulletin's SEO. It's actually against the grain as far as google webmaster tools is concerned.

For those that use htaccess to rewrite anything other than the default URL listings Vbulletin will make a sitemap contrary to the canonical URL resulting in a looping override of the canonical URL. The sitemap will say "these urls exist" and Google sees them as a preference. It will then send a robot to verify the page exist resulting in exposure to the canonical url. this cause google to drop references to the canonical URL as soon as the next sitemap is submitted. That is nightly for me.

The problem lies in /includes/class_sitemap.php.

Here is a word from Google expressingly stating not to do what vB functionality currently does:
https://support.google.com/webmaster...r/139066?hl=en

While we encourage you to use any of these methods, none of them are required. If you don't indicate a canonical URL, we'll identify what we think is the best version or URL.
Don't use the robots.txt file for canonicalization purposes.
Don't use the URL removal tool for canonicalization: it removes all versions of a URL from search.
Don't specify different URLs as canonical for the same page (e.g. one URL in a sitemap and a different URL for that same page using rel="canonical")

--------------- Added [DATE]1432502849[/DATE] at [TIME]1432502849[/TIME] ---------------

FYI i'm asking if there is a preexisting canonical reference other than using 'bburl'? I'm trying to edit code on line 797 of includes/class_sitemap.php to get vbulletin to pull the url rewrites we use as the url for the sitemap to write. We've got tens of thousands of linkbacks preexisting from the site being 7 years old. The rewrites we used were custom and vbulletin doesn't have an option that displays them that way. The canonical urls are already rewritten to reflect what our url rewrites in htacess are. If I can get this to work then we will not have anymore problems with Google Webmaster tools.

If you know of w way please let me know:

$content .= "\n\t" . '<loc>' . htmlspecialchars_uni($this->registry->options['bburl'] . '/xmlsitemap.php?fn=' . urlencode($sitemap['loc'])) . '</loc>';

[kh99]

So are you saying that, when generating the sitemap, you'd like to do the reverse of what your htaccess rewrite rules do? I don't know how to do that, but I was wondering if I understood correctly.

[mykkal]

Originally Posted by kh99

So are you saying that, when generating the sitemap, you'd like to do the reverse of what your htaccess rewrite rules do? I don't know how to do that, but I was wondering if I understood correctly.

Hey there, this is an issue unique to those that use a custom url structure. I fixed it by getting a custom made sitemap. Basically this was a problem that .htaccess couldn't fix. The vbulletin sitemap was creating links in a http://Yoursite.com/showthread.php?t-122232 format. Google looks at any sitemap as a prefered format. It also looks at a "rel=canonical" tag as a prefered format. Like say... Google begins to index in one format, visits the page and begins to index in another format. Then when the sitemap is checked again the cycle starts all over.

Basically the two canceled each other out. Now that the sitemap matches the Canonical tag things will index much quicker.

Plus this sitemap pings google anyways so I don't have to wait weeks for indexing. New posts are showing up in the index within an hour or so.

[RichieBoy67]

Can you share your work?

[mykkal]

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

Can you share your work?

I'll private message you. Last time i tried to do that some were offended.

[SaN-DeeP]

way to fix vbulletin sitemap so that it returns the value of the Canonical Url

not doable in sitemaps FYI..

[mykkal]

Originally Posted by SaN-DeeP

not doable in sitemaps FYI..

its been done. just can't do it in vBulletin's native sitemap.

[SaN-DeeP]

Originally Posted by mykkal

its been done. just can't do it in vBulletin's native sitemap.

Hello mykkal,
This is great to understand.. Sorry but.
I just did not read your first post completely, just few lines and answered.
Can you post a working solution to rest of community ?

[mykkal]

Originally Posted by SaN-DeeP

Hello mykkal,
This is great to understand.. Sorry but.
I just did not read your first post completely, just few lines and answered.
Can you post a working solution to rest of community ?

I cannot. I fixed the issue by fixing the VBSEO sitemap code to work with 4.2.3. Everytime I've tried to share the fixes we've implemented over the last weeks I've been harassed by members or shunned by moderators.

I was going to PM the changes to a member but I changed my mind after the headache of last week.

I can, however post to you my sitemap links so you can see that custom htaccess redirects & sitemaps do work. Then you can endeavor to fix it for yourself. I want to share but I've decided the headache of last week isn't worth it.

to make the sitemap work fix your purchased version of vBSEO first...then fix the sitemap. It will render urls in whatever format your htaccess rewrite rules reflect.

[SaN-DeeP]

Thanks mykkal for your immediate reply.. Appreciated...

I will strictly suggest you to remove those above links (for your own site privacy/seuecirty first).
2nd vbseo should not allow me to download those files (check your rules)..
3rd do not share those links in public (like these places).. I have a note of those URIs.. will try to spend some time with same.. as we are already in process of removing vbseo from all our domain/site (s).