SEO

Im having a problem getting the sitemap generator to save the created sitemap in the specified location. I am specifing the location to be www.xxx.com. In the root directory basically... but it continues to save it in www.xxx.com/public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data

Please advise.

Hello Brandon,

It is being created in the correct location.

The .htaccess directive tells visitors to xxx.com/sitemap.xml.gz that it's there, when it's really in /forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/

__________________
Ace Shattock / Crawlability Inc.
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My Personal Sites: New Zealand Forum | vBulletin Modifications and Styles | vBulletin Hosting

it is not possible to direct google webmaster tools to that directory though... when trying to add a sitemap with webmaster tools it says it must be in the root directory. Please advise. Thanks in advance

Indeed, that is correct.

The .htaccess directive tells visitors to the sitemap at root level that it's there, when it's really in /forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/.

__________________
Ace Shattock / Crawlability Inc.
vBSEO 3.2.0 Launched - Maximum Overdrive for Your Web Traffic! Over 100 Instant SEO Optimizations

vBSEO Google Sitemap Generator - Version 2.2 Released Mandatory Upgrade for vBSEO 3.2.0 GOLD

6X Traffic - $1400 in One Day with vBSEO! Imagine What the vBSEO Patent Pending Technology Can Do For You.


My Personal Sites: New Zealand Forum | vBulletin Modifications and Styles | vBulletin Hosting

right.

you submit domain.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz to google.
with the htaccess rules,
domain.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz actually points do the vbseo_sitemap/data/ folder, grabbing the correct file for google, much like domain.com/forum/t123/ actually goes to showthread.php?t=123 and so on.

my current .htaccess rules contain nothing but the following:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(forumdisplay\.php)/[^/]+-([0-9]+)/.* vbseo.php?vbseourl=$1&f=$2 [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^leanbulk\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.leanbulk.com/$1 [R=permanent,L]
<Files 403.shtml>
order allow,deny
allow from all
</Files>

Is this what needs to be included in order to direct google to the /forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/ location or do I need to add a command?

You aren't using the default vBSEO or vBSEO Sitemap .htaccess.

That factor makes a difference, and negates almost everything I have said. I apologise for making that assumption.

You need the sitemap rule from the default .htaccess.

__________________
Ace Shattock / Crawlability Inc.
vBSEO 3.2.0 Launched - Maximum Overdrive for Your Web Traffic! Over 100 Instant SEO Optimizations

vBSEO Google Sitemap Generator - Version 2.2 Released Mandatory Upgrade for vBSEO 3.2.0 GOLD

6X Traffic - $1400 in One Day with vBSEO! Imagine What the vBSEO Patent Pending Technology Can Do For You.


My Personal Sites: New Zealand Forum | vBulletin Modifications and Styles | vBulletin Hosting

This modification was done per your staffs advice in order to redirect and rewrite previously listed google indexed pages...which I will add has worked great. This has been the case for 3 weeks now. Do you think it is safe for me to restore the defult vbSEO/sitemap .htaccess file? And if this is what you think needs to be done, are you referring to the .htaccess file included in vbseo 3.1 download? Furthermore, is there two separate .htaccess files? one for vbseo and one for vbseo site map generator?

Thanks

one last thing... the above notation is in the root directory .htaccess file... the .htacess file in the /public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data directory reads: :"deny from all"

yes, it goes in ROOT htaccess. leave the one in the data folder alone. (that way no one can browse to that directory and view the files and all the bot hits directly)

can you confrim this is the "defult" htaccess file you are referring to before I make this change.

# Comment the following line (add '#' at the beginning)
# to disable mod_rewrite functions.
# Please note: you still need to disable the hack in
# the vBSEO control panel to stop url rewrites.
RewriteEngine On
# Some servers require the Rewritebase directive to be
# enabled (remove '#' at the beginning to activate)
# Please note: when enabled, you must include the path
# to your root vB folder (i.e. RewriteBase /forums/)
#RewriteBase /
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.yourdomain\.com
#RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yourdomain.com/forums/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^((urllist|sitemap_).*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !vbseourl=
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(admincp/|modcp/|chat|cron)
RewriteRule ^(.*\.php(/.*)?)$ vbseo.php?vbseourl=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !\.(jpg|gif)$
RewriteRule ^(archive/.*)$ vbseo.php?vbseourl=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^(admincp|modcp|clientscript|cpstyles|images)/
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ vbseo.php?vbseourl=$1 [L,QSA]

simply put, all i need to do is replace my current htacess file with this exact htaccess file.. nothing more, nothing less, no changes?

Hi Brandon,

As long as this line is in the .htaccess, the redirect will work.

__________________
Ace Shattock / Crawlability Inc.
vBSEO 3.2.0 Launched - Maximum Overdrive for Your Web Traffic! Over 100 Instant SEO Optimizations

vBSEO Google Sitemap Generator - Version 2.2 Released Mandatory Upgrade for vBSEO 3.2.0 GOLD

6X Traffic - $1400 in One Day with vBSEO! Imagine What the vBSEO Patent Pending Technology Can Do For You.


My Personal Sites: New Zealand Forum | vBulletin Modifications and Styles | vBulletin Hosting

When site map generator runs the sitemal_index.xml goes in the /public_html/forum/vbseo_sitemap/data directory... i can only submit the sitemap_index.xml file to google webmaster sitemap location if it is in teh root directory... is there a way for vbseo sitemap generator to automatically put this in http://www.xxx.com/sitemap_index.xlml instead of http://www.xxx/forum/vbseo_sitemap/d...emap_index.xml

thanks

you should submit

site.com/forums/sitemap_index.xml.gz

the htaccess rule will direct that to the vbseo_sitemap/data/ directives