Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator

vBulletin Google Sitemaps by vBSEO v.2.5 - vBulletin 3.7.x
Download vB 3.8.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.6.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.

[shotkey]

Originally Posted by shotkey

That's similar to what I asked before and need an answer on as I'm not really familiar with seo tools - only my question was that the main part of the site is Joomla which has a menu link to the vbulliten forum (no bridge or integration other than the forum is a subdomain) - so the question was if you run seo (Jpromoter) on the main site does it pick up the forum too? In other words would be redundant to run this mod on the forum side or would this help?

Just hoping someone here has had experience with this type of setup and can point me in the right direction so that I don't have to play trial and error and screw things up!

[realmr]

Originally Posted by iojam

realmr,

in case of lighttpd rewrite rules should be entered in existing lighty config file (lighttpd.conf) on your server, not in .htaccess file.

done the same as mentioned, still get 404 error not found
had posted this - modified for my forum:

url.rewrite-once = ( "^/((urllist|sitemap).*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)" => "/board/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1" )

[realmr]

I have added the rewrite rule inside lighttpd_rewrite to lighttpd.mysite.com inside the conf/lxadmin folder.

[iojam]

riverwire,

did you create .htaccess file as described?

PWO81,

looks like permissions issue. If you have modified any files/folders permissions then try to reinstall vBSEO Sitemap Generator.

realmr,

are any other rewrite rules working for you on your server?

[Adam H]

Thanks for the reply, i sorted it, not sure how but i did lol after i moved the site to a different domain it seemed to work (dont worry i didnt move the site because of that problem )

[iojam]

Great, I'm glad you got it sorted

[David Bott]

Hello...

Seems to be an issue somewhere. Not sure where, but somewhere.

The data is made and put into the "data" directory that is inside the "vbseo_sitemap" directory which is under our forum root.

The files are made just fine and reported to Google. Looking in the Google Webmaster Tools, it sees the main master file just fine, but does not index any of it. Why? Well, looking inside the file it makes, all the links for each file is not to the forum root where the .htaccess file is.

Here is the master file Google calls...(As reported by Webmaster Tools)

REMOVED

Note the path above DOES work as it is redirected as needed by the .htacess file.

But inside that master file, all the others are listed like this...

REMOVED

Note the added vbseo_sitemap directory.

As such, these all fail as the files it is looking for is actually inside the DATA directory.

REMOVED

Now, even more weird. If I look at your spider logs, it shows files are being picked up. So which is it? Google says on their site, nothing pickup up, yet you show them as being accessed.

Please be so kind to advise.

Thank you.

[iojam]

Make sure that you have "Sitemap Files URL" setting empty.

[Abhik]

Can not access the sitemap settings page from control panel..
Any Ideas?

[David Bott]

Thank you for the reply.

Looking at the option setting, it says it will keep the files in the forum root if you do not set this. Seeing I do not want the files stored in the forum root, as we have over 250 of them, I set it to...

REMOVED

...Are you saying this is not correct? All my files in that that dir and then the data is in the data directory within it.

Are you saying this is not correct?


BTW...Running a test now jsut for kicks. But it takes time.