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
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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
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We welcome you to join the vBSEO Affiliate Program.

[kontrabass]

Any chance of getting a plugin for ReviewPost (PhotoPost product)?

[aciurczak]

You can definitely confirm it is functioning just by looking at the files it creates. Whether it is "working" by getting your site better indexed by the search engines, that's open for some debate, but by and large it helps a great deal.

I am noticing that its effectiveness seems to have waned in the past few months. When I first installed this, Google would send dozens of searchbots to my site each day to crawl the latest additions to the sitemap. I'd have a top 5 hit on google for any specific text in a thread title within a day or two of the original posting on my site.

But lately, even though Google downloads the new sitemap at least once per day (can check that in the logs and also by logging in to your webmaster account at Google), by also looking at the Track Guests mod I can see that it only sends 1 or 2 searchbots to my site per day (other than the adsense bots), and the new pages aren't getting indexed nearly as quickly. In fact, Yahoo is now sending dozens (sometimes hundreds) of bots to my site based on their grabbing that same sitemap, and it also appears that more of my visitors are now coming to me via Yahoo search than Google. I still think this is a great tool, but I wish Google used the files with the same vigor that they used to.

[creativepart]

My experience is the same. I use the full-price VBSEO package and a few months after installation I had 200,000 pages indexed on Google. Now, after they changed their system I dropped to only 60,000 or so pages listed. Page ranking dropped from 6/10 to 4/10 too.

[Smitty]

I bought the 'full' VBSEO package but decided not to install it. My biggest worry was how to change back if I decided, for whatever reason, to remove it. I'm told it can be set up so that taking it out won't be a problem. Last year I grossed almost US$70K from my main site (which I consider small, but it's a good 'niche' technical web site) so the cost wasn't a factor at all. Most of the feedback I found when I perused many 'web master' forums researching was that for a mature site it isn't of much, if any, 'help'.

If I was setting up a new forum I'd use it, probably. But the bottom line is VBSEO isn't a 'magic bullet' any more than a site map is. Content, inbound non-reciprocal links, and length of time online are the major factors IMHO. Even page rank is of little significance these days. I also think Google now understands the url name issue and is placing less weight on the url name.

As to the number of pages indexed, I don't believe that's all that important. What is important is visitor statistics. As long as I see an increase in visitors most months I'm a happy camper.

EDIT ADD: As a disclaimer, I haven't installed this mod/hack. I did 'subscribe' to this thread to monitor it. Like VBSEO, I think site maps are vastly over rated. Content, inbound non-reciprocal links (but not from link farms or 'reciprocal', or related, agreements {such as 'post for post' or 'link for link' exchanges}), and length of time online rule!

[iojam]

brvheart,

please try to execute it via vbseo_sitemap/ interface ("Run sitemap generator" link).

StepOnFrog,

sitemap files are created in vbseo_sitemap/data/ folder, but you should create .htaccess file with mod_rewrite rule in forums root to allow accessing them as http://yourforumsroot/sitemap_1.xml.gz

[ab4u]

Great work ,but I want to know if it's free to use or not?

[StepOnFrog]

Yahoo says that to submit a url list your file must be named "urllist.txt" or "urllist.txt.gz"

Just thought I'd share it with everyone.

EDIT #1: IOJAM -->
Thnx. I've done all that was listed in post #1354 (I know that number off by heart now!!! lol). I haven't got a clue if it all works as supposed, just that the files ARE being created and contain some stuff. If the BOTS don't like what's in my sitemaps, then bugger them.! I can only try, eh!?

EDIT #2: Google Sitemaps Error-->
Google Sitemaps said that my URL didn't exist, and after a while I realised that I hadn't stuck the .htaccess file in the right place... don't know about other ppl, but I had to stick the .htaccess file in the very root of my domain (the bit where no one gets a look in, unless you're admin).

EDIT #3: Google Sitemaps Error (part 2)-->
Carrying on from Edit #2, google decided that something was still wrong with the sitemap_index.xml.gz file. Google doesn't like what's written in this file, so I've pointed Google to the sitemap_1.xml.gz file instead.. no problems there.! But, the bigger problem was then with the sitemap_1.xml.gz file, that the vBAdvanced index page wasn't listed correctly in the xml file. To fix this, I had to nip into the vBAdvanced CMPS control panel in the VB ADMIN page, and in the MODULE SETTINGS under CMPS URL --> I had to write the FULL address of where the CMPS index is located. This has resolved all problems now. It's all funky and groovy, and is working like a dream.

[kall]

Originally Posted by ab4u

Great work ,but I want to know if it's free to use or not?

All modifications avaliable for download from vBulletin.org are free to use.

[kontrabass]

Does one usually need to restart apache for it to read the .htaccess file? I've triple-checked things, (using cloudrunner's guide with VBA and /forum directory), and Google still gives me a 404...

If I try to access sitemap.txt.gz directly (www.mysite.com/sitemap.txt.gz) it also gives me a 404. The .htaccess is uploaded exactly as provided in the mod, to my www root. I've confirmed mod_rewrite is installed.

FIXED: I needed to have "AllowOverride All" added to the directory directive, in my virtualhost container in httpd.conf, to instruct it to consider .htaccess files.

[ab4u]

Originally Posted by kall

All modifications avaliable for download from vBulletin.org are free to use.

Thank you :up: