Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator

vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator - vBulletin 3.6.x
Download vB 3.8.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.7.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.5.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.

[Steve St.Lauren]

My guess would be that you already had an .htaccess file for vBSEO in your forums directory and you overwrote it with the .htaccess file in the vbSEO sitemap distribution. The instructions tell you that if you already have an .htaccess file (which everyone that's already running vBSEO should) then you need to just add 3 lines to the very bottom of it. Here's the note from the installation docs:

Note: If you already have an .htaccess file in your forum root, DO NOT upload the vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap .htaccess file as it will replace the contents of this file. Instead, enter the following code in your 'forum-root/.htaccess' file at the bottom:


RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^((urllist|sitemap).*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1 [L]

[Ohiosweetheart]

I know Steve, I read the instructions.

Problem is, I didn't overwrite any existing .htaccess file because I didn't have an .htaccess file in my forum root, and still don't, since I had to remove the one I uploaded from the zip here for my forum to work again.

I also don't run vBSEO on this forum.

Anyone have any other ideas?

[iojam]

djbaxter,

Actually, that's no longer true if you use the new sitemaps declaration in the robots.txt file:

Mm.. what exactly is not true from what I wrote above?
You can specify sitemap in robots.txt, you can submit it to Google webmaster account (to be able to track it) or just send a ping, but sitemap still should be located in the topmost folder. That's why .htaccess entry is required in case if files are stored in a subfolder.

Steve St.Lauren,

please try to uninstall xml product file and reinstall it.

Ohiosweetheart,

please make sure that your host supports mod_rewrite and allows rewrite rules in .htaccess.

[Ohiosweetheart]

Originally Posted by iojam

Ohiosweetheart,
please make sure that your host supports mod_rewrite and allows rewrite rules in .htaccess.

I know they allow mod_rewrite, because I have vBSEO on my other site which is on the same host, and have the instructed rewrite in that .htaccess file.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by iojam

djbaxter,

djbaxter,

Mm.. what exactly is not true from what I wrote above?
You can specify sitemap in robots.txt, you can submit it to Google webmaster account (to be able to track it) or just send a ping, but sitemap still should be located in the topmost folder. That's why .htaccess entry is required in case if files are stored in a subfolder.

^^^ THAT is what's not true. You can now locate the sitemap file wherever you wish as long as you specifiy the alternate location in the robots.txt file - the robots.txt file must reside in the root folder; the sitemap can be anywhere you like. If you do that, you don't need the mod_rewrite addition to your .htaccess file.

See http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php#submit_robots

[Steve St.Lauren]

Originally Posted by iojam

djbaxter,

Steve St.Lauren,

please try to uninstall xml product file and reinstall it.

I did and got the same message. I jut removed the cron portion out of the xml file and added the cron job manually. This was on 3.6.7 btw.

[LewisAinslie]

I already have a .htaccess file. What do i do if i have one? add it to bottom?

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by LewisAinslie

I already have a .htaccess file. What do i do if i have one? add it to bottom?

Yes, probably. You need a slight modification if you already have a mod_rewrite instruction in there.

If you see any lines like this:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On

Add the RewrteRule line AFTER that.

RewriteRule ^(sitemap.*\.(xml\.gz|txt))$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1

Make sure that ONLY the last RewiteRule statement ends with the following:

[R=301,L]

For example, a site that contains two RewriteRule statements would look something like this:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(sitemap.*\.(xml\.gz|txt))$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ somesite.com
RewriteRule .* http://someothersite.com/? [R=301,L]

[LewisAinslie]

Ok thanks but it is not writing the links as SEO, i have zoints SEO installed and its working for example

http://community.gamerjuice.co.uk/pr...rship-t64.html

but its writing to the site map as

http://community.gamerjuice.co.uk/showthread.php?t=64

[da420]

Turn off mod_rewrite on the Zoints modification.