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?

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

• 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
============================

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

(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

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

• vBSEO - vBulletin Search Engine Optimization
  
• vBSEO Conditional Signatures for vBulletin

vBSEO Affiliate Program
============================

We welcome you to join the vBSEO Affiliate Program.

[coffeesage]

When making a scheduled task, is it necessary to include the day of month, hour and minute? Is so, what is suggested? Also, what should be placed in the log-phrase box?

[coffeesage]

I also got this error when I tried to run the sitemap script. What does it mean?

Database error in vBulletin 3.6.2:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT * FROM adv_setting;

MySQL Error : Table 'twotails_coffeebreak.adv_setting' doesn't exist
Error Number : 1146
Date : Friday, October 13th 2006 @ 12:11:45 PM
Script : http://coffeebreak.coffeesage.com/ad...cron&cronid=18
Referrer : http://coffeebreak.coffeesage.com/admincp/index.php?
IP Address : xxxxxxx (removed by me)
Username : xxxxxx (removed by me)
Classname : vb_database

[coffeesage]

Nevermind. Figured it all out myself. lol... thanks anyway.

[Snake]

Oleg, mine shows up nothing. Take a look here:
http://www.finalfantasyforums.net/sitemap_index.xml.gz

Any idea?

[Pottsy]

I get the same as Linmar.

First time the script ran, it was fine. Second time, all seems OK except the execution time doubled and the cpanel cron email report had 11 Mb of:

Warning</strong>: gzwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in <strong>/home/*****/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php</strong> on line <strong>438</strong><br /><br /><strong>
Warning</strong>: gzwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in <strong>/home/*****/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php</strong> on line <strong>435</strong><br /><br /><strong>Warning</strong>: gzwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream

and some

Warning</strong>: gzwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in <strong>/home/*****/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php</strong> on line <strong>454</strong><br /><br /><strong>
Warning</strong>: gzclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in <strong>/home/*****/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php</strong> on line <strong>455</strong><br />[create sitemap file] filename: sitemap_2.xml.gz, number of urls: 6928 [5s (+0)]<br/>
[create sitemap in text format] part #3 [5s (+0)]<br/>
<br /><strong>
Warning</strong>: gzclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in <strong>/home/*****/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php</strong> on line <strong>484</strong><br /><br /><strong>
Warning</strong>: fopen(/home/*****/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/sitemap_index.xml.gz): failed to open stream: Permission denied in <strong>/home/*****/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php</strong> on line <strong>685</strong><br /><br /><strong>
Warning</strong>: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in <strong>/home/*****/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php</strong> on line <strong>686</strong><br /><br /><strong>
Warning</strong>: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in <strong>/home/*****/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php</strong> on line <strong>687</strong><br />[create sitemap index] filename: sitemap_index.xml.gz, number of sitemaps: 2 [5s (+0)]<br/>

My "data" directory is, of course 777. VB is 3.6.1 without vbseo, and the *****'s are my own substitution for this post.

Would appreciate some guidance! TIA.

[ehsanix]

why it doesn't work with vrewrite?

[Pottsy]

To answer my own problem - all the files in /data need to be 666, and for some reason my ftp program would only change half of them (an error to do with the file having an incorrect designator). Deleted and re-uploaded /data and chmod to 666 fixed it.

[Trana]

How do I troubleshoot the Yahoo Auto Notify and Ping failures? My sitemap creation results email indicates that the Yahoo ping is failing.

Thanks!

[saab340]

Installed script, and I saw index files being created, also downloaded by Google. Found google webmaster page and signed and looked at my stats. website was last crawled 7 days ago. I also manually uploaded my site index file, which was downloaded by google few minutes
(I also added .htaccess pages for all my directories)
my forums/directories are created like this www.mysite.com/portal/forums/

So I have 1 .htaccess file under each of the folder roots
www.mysite.com and www.mysite.com/portal and www.mysite.com/portal/forums and each .htaccess file has its own redirect, so it will work under each folder.

When will Google actually crawl my new pages? or did I do something wrong?
In my understanding when index file is being downloaded it does not mean pages have been crawled...correct?

So what is the appx time google will crawl pages after being installed this mod? (And does this mod require google webmaster account)

[iojam]

piniron,

Yahoo sitemap is located at http://yourforumsroot/urllist.txt.gz

Snake,
it seem to wokr fine now

Trana,
you can manually submit your sitemap to Yahoo once and check if yahoo downloads it.

saab340 ,
you can find more details on Google sitemaps here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/si.../protocol.html