Problems with My Forum Sitemaps

[Ion Saliu]

Problems with My Forum Sitemaps

I had good sitemaps created by vBulletin, before I installed vBSEO. Now, my sitemaps in Google Webmaster Tools are totally messed up. I get this error message:

“URLs not followed
When we tested a sample of URLs from your Sitemap, we found that some URLs redirect to other locations. We recommend that your Sitemap contain URLs that point to the final destination (the redirect target) instead of redirecting to another URL.”

I did not want to install vBSEO sitemap generator because I did not want any trouble with sitemaps that worked. There is no vbseo/sitemap folder in my vB forums.

What can be done? How can I solve this mess?

http://forums.saliu.com/

[Brian Cummiskey]

The built in vb4 sitemap generator should be disabled, removed/uninstalled. It will never pick up vbseo'ed urls in it, and you will always have the above issues with it.

You should install the vbseo sitemap generator 3.0pl1 from the downloads area and use our tool instead.

[Ion Saliu]

Holy smokes! This is a never-ending loop!

The registration said the vBSEO sitemap generator was just an option and it was NOT supposed to affect the vB built-in sitemap!

But, then again, the vBSEO advertising assures that webmasters will see great SEO improvements after one day! After buying, however, the webmaster is told to wait 4-8 weeks to see SLIGHT improvements!

Anyway . . . back to the headaches again . . . A new sitemap, a new mess-up . . . a new drop in Google rankings for weeks to come (as my forum sitemap has now 0 URLs indexed) . . .

[Ion Saliu]

I did it again!

So, I disabled the built-in vB sitemap generator via my vB admincp. Then, I deleted the vB sitemap in my Google Webmaster Tools.

I installed the vBSEO sitemap generator. It appears now in the plugins of my vB admincp. I clicked Generate Sitemap in vBSEO xmlsitemap. It shows that my vBSEO sitemap was correctly generated and correctly submitted to Google, Yahoo, Bing.

I still have a /sitemap_store/ in the root of my vB forums (created by vB). I also have the vbseo_sitemap folder listing 3 vBulletin sitemaps (created by the vbseo_sitemap plug-in).

I checked Google Webmaster Tools — still there is NO sitemap for my forums!

Now what?

I understand the hardships specific to Cyber World — but there must be easier ways out of the woods . . .

[Brian Cummiskey]

The vb default data and sitemap_store areas can all be deleted as advised above. The scheduled task should also be removed/disabled.

The vbseo sitemap generator Reports page will show you the url of your sitemap on the top right of the page, and this is what should be submitted the google webmaster tools.

[Ion Saliu]

Thanks. I told you before I bought your product that you needed a comprehensive readme file. The webmasters should know in advance how the installation works, and what potential errors arise. Also, let people know in advance how vBSEO sitemap generator works and the conflicts with vBulletin’s built-in sitemap generator.

By the way, it appears that the vBSEO sitemap should be submitted manually to Bing. The link in the vBSEO sitemap cp does not work. It triggers a 404 error. The webmaster must go to this link:

Webmaster Tools - Bing

A Live account must be active. Then, the webmaster can add sites to the account. Bing verifies by uploading a file to your site(s): BingSiteAuth.xml.

Hopefully, this is the end of installing vBSEO to my vBulletin forum. Now, the only thing I should do is waiting, patiently, to reap the benefits of this much talked about SEO . . .

Best of luck to me and all vBSEO webmasters!

Ion Saliu,
Exhausted Webmaster At-Large