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?

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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
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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.

[noppid]

I'd hate to throw a wet blanket on this party. But considering that up till now the sitemaps have been of no use with all the bad URLs if ShowPost was included, should this be in beta till we get all the bugs worked out?

Alot of people are putting their seo eggs in this basket and so far ALOT of us have all sent bad site maps to google. I'm not happy about that to be honest.

And what about the yahoo! URLs? My research says use URL encoding. Other research says no encoding. What is the authority on this change?

This is not an add on where you say oh so what, the user just sees a non bold text where there should be bold, we'll fix it soon. These are things that should have been 100% from the get go!

Thank god the code aint encoded, because the few bugs I have fixed in advance myself would never have been addressable.

Are we at production level here now or what? I don't like the idea that an SEO expert is playing with my sitemaps to learn!

[dagger77]

hi

when ever google try to access my data folder because my sitemap is there its gives error 500 . Thats becuase i put password to that folder so how google will downlaod the sitemap ? is there away to let the sitemap upload to just forum folder so its will be easy for google to downlaod it ?!

[kall]

Quick question: Should it be submitting for http://www.nzboards.com/ or http://www.nzboards.com/forums ?

Does it make a difference?

(Oh, and... @noppid: "alot" means 'to proportion out', you are looking for two words: "A" and "lot".)

[iojam]

dagger77,

the vbseo_sitemap/data/ folder should NOT be accessed directly. All sitemap files are downloaded using forumsroot/ path (it works using mod_rewrite rules in .htaccess). That was discussed several times in this thread , for instance
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=394

kall,

Quick question: Should it be submitting for http://www.nzboards.com/ or http://www.nzboards.com/forums ?

Does it make a difference?

In case when sitemap contains only forums URLs, it's fine to keep it in forums/ subfolder.

But if you will include non-vB URLs linking to the root (using "extra-urls.txt" or addons), then sitemap files should reside in the root.

[noppid]

Originally Posted by kall

Quick question: Should it be submitting for http://www.nzboards.com/ or http://www.nzboards.com/forums ?

Does it make a difference?

(Oh, and... @noppid: "alot" means 'to proportion out', you are looking for two words: "A" and "lot".)

I'm not looking for a pissing match here, so don't stir the pot.

If you are so good with your eyes, next time look for some of the bugs to be fixed before having a bunch of us submit broken sitemap files.

I have chipped in and helped with this hacks bugs and I'm glad I did. But don't give me a broken toy and tell me an expert made it when as a meer amature I have to find and fix bugs. When you call yourself and "expert" you have to wear the lable and perform like one.

I'm asking a legitimate question. Is this expert coded work done or not? I say not and I'd like to see it fixed in a more timely manner in the future. This is a very serious part of a websites existance one is playing with here. It's not to be taken lightly. Worse it raises the question of the quality of the closed code in other products.

I'm trying to look out for the vBSEO coders here, not insult them. But I WILL call them to the mat on quality and timelyness since they are experts and should know the drill.

[jward]

@noppid:

Unfortunately, we completed a fix but it was not uploaded to the site in a timely fashion. The bug in the showpost URLs has been corrected. FYI This issue results in having a small number of showpost links repeated multiple times, which is not a big problem and is similar to having "showpost" pages disabled.

Note: The code is now updated here with the bug fix.

We are at production level. However, bugs are a fact of life in the software development lifecycle. As in the past, we will continue to do our best to provide fast upgrades whenever an issue (large or small) is identified.

Thank-you for being the first to alert us to this issue.

As for Yahoo sitemaps, we have not found any documentation indicating that the URLs need to be URL encoded. However, Yahoo just updated its sitemap format. They accept either RSS or single URL submissions. So, we are now working on upgrading the plugin.

[bangthebook]

403 Forbidden Error when I submit to Yahoo.

Is there anyway to confirm that google has downloaded the sitemap? Alittle confused now that it is all setup

Thanks
Ryan

[croportal]

Originally Posted by bangthebook

403 Forbidden Error when I submit to Yahoo.

Is there anyway to confirm that google has downloaded the sitemap? Alittle confused now that it is all setup

Thanks
Ryan

yeah mee to, i am also confused

[noppid]

Originally Posted by jward

@noppid:

Unfortunately, we completed a fix but it was not uploaded to the site in a timely fashion. The bug in the showpost URLs has been corrected. FYI This issue results in having a small number of showpost links repeated multiple times, which is not a big problem and is similar to having "showpost" pages disabled.

Note: The code is now updated here with the bug fix.

We are at production level. However, bugs are a fact of life in the software development lifecycle. As in the past, we will continue to do our best to provide fast upgrades whenever an issue (large or small) is identified.

Thank-you for being the first to alert us to this issue.

As for Yahoo sitemaps, we have not found any documentation indicating that the URLs need to be URL encoded. However, Yahoo just updated its sitemap format. They accept either RSS or single URL submissions. So, we are now working on upgrading the plugin.

I totally disagree with your assessment of the number of URLs affected. It was not a few, it was ALL vB showpost URLs. But it's fixed, water under the bridge.

You're doing good. But you have a bigger responsibility here then the average hacker. It's great to see the code up to date. Asking this to happen faster and more accuartly may seem like being a pain in the A**, but it's necessary that we be dilligent when we hack what will affect folks in the SERPs.

Thanks for the reply and a great hack. I'm glad to see you taking this critisism professionally.

Regards

[iojam]

Ryan,

403 Forbidden Error when I submit to Yahoo.

Please make sure that you have the correct mod_rewrite rule entered in .htaccess (it was slightly changed in one of previous versions).

Is there anyway to confirm that google has downloaded the sitemap? Alittle confused now that it is all setup

You will see every sitemap download request in your vbseo_sitemap/ interface (both Google and Yahoo downloads).