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"
============================

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.

[cashpath]

Google is giving me this error...

View errors for: http://www.site.com//sitemap_1.xml.gz

Notice the // before the sitemap_1

Where did I mess up?

FIXED:::: Had a / on the end of my hompage url in vb settings

[iojam]

zane99,

the submission date in google webmaster account is the date when you manually submitted it last time.

Mecho,

you should only submit xml sitemaps to Google.

[Mecho]

Originally Posted by iojam

Mecho,

you should only submit xml sitemaps to Google.

so i should remove sitemap.txt.gz from my sitemaps , right ??

and also u said just submit XML Files . ok , but when i browse this file : Mysite/sitemap_1.xml or Mysite/sitemap_2.xml

i get file not found but if i add .gz at the end of them i see file . and at the top this message shows up:

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.

and under it its a coded file with links and .... .


now i have these files in my google account :
sitemap_1.xml.gz => 49999 urls
sitemap_2.xml.gz => 77 urls
sitemap_index.xml.gz => 49999 urls

is it correct ?

and also now i checked everything and i saw that when i browse those files i get this error : !!

Warning: fopen(/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/downloads.dat) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/mechodow/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php on line 40

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mechodow/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php on line 41

Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mechodow/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php on line 42
Sitemap file not found

i delete DATA File and reupload it again and set 777 for permission . and seems its ok .. i did right ??

Thanks in advance .

[iojam]

so i should remove sitemap.txt.gz from my sitemaps , right ??

This file is for Yahoo submission.

and also now i checked everything and i saw that when i browse those files i get this error : !!

You should set permissions for downloads.dat file to 0666.

[Mecho]

Originally Posted by iojam

You should set permissions for downloads.dat file to 0666.

Thanks for reply ...

when i want to change permissions for download.dat file to 666 i get this error :

[a fatal error or timeout occurred while processing this directive]

!

Thanks in advance


Edit : resolved .. Thanks alot for all ur help

[chopin2256]

I have vBSEO 3.0.0 RC6, but yet when I click on "Show SE Bots Activity Log", no log shows up. Do I need to change a certain setting in vBSEO? I know the sitemaps are generated, and they are submitted. I would like to see bot activity though...any ideas?

[iojam]

chopin2256,

make sure that you have logging option enabled in vbseocp.

[chopin2256]

Yup...I just installed this mod though, maybe it takes a few days to kick in? My forum gets spidered constantly so I didn't think this would be the problem.

[Xplorer4x4]

Originally Posted by AFemaleProdigy

Because there is a limit to the number of URLs that can be contained in a Google sitemap, this generator will create multiple sitemaps to contain the allowed amount of URLs. So the number of sitemaps generated each time depends on how many URLs are contained within your boards. Larger boards will generate more sitemaps then smaller boards.

Originally Posted by iojam

Xplorer4x4,

make sure that you have "minutes" option set to "0" in Scheduled tasks manager (NOT "*").

Thanks both of you!

[iojam]

chopin2256,

yes, it may take a little while depending on spiders activity.