Verifying your vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator is Installed Correctly

Verifying your vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator is Installed Correctly

Overview
The vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator is a tool designed to create sitemaps, to then be submitted to Google and Yahoo, to tell the Search Engines what is available to index on your site.

Of File Locations and .htaccess Redirections
After installing the Sitemap, the actual sitemap files will be located at /<forumroot>/vbseo_sitemap/data/.

When you submit the sitemap to Google/Yahoo, the path you use is http://www.<domain>.com/sitemap_title.xml.gz (if you have pages in the root, or other directories than /forum/, or if your forum is in the root), or http://www.<domain>.com/forum/sitemap_title.xml.gz (if you only want to index pages from /forums/).

When the Search Engine goes to that location, the .htaccess file redirects it to the actual location under /vbseo_sitemap/data.

Submitting to Google:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ is the place that you use to manage your Sitemaps, across as many sites as you want.

Create a Google account and login at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ , then add your Site by entering the domain name into the box, and clicking Add Site.

Next, click the Sitemaps link in the left navigation column, then 'Add a Sitemap'. Choose 'Add General Web Sitemap', then enter either sitemap_index.xml.gz or /forumroot/sitemap_index.xml.gz in the box provided. Repeat for each additional sitemap that you have generated.

You will also need to Verify that you are the owner of the site. This is done by either uploading an html file to your site, or entering a meta tag into a template on your default (Guests) style. It is up to you which you use.

Is My Sitemap Working, and is it Where I Told Google?
To determine whether the Sitemap has been generated, and whether the .htaccess is working, simply call the Sitemap's URL in your browser, eg: http://www.<domain>.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz. If it downloads, it's working.

Assuming the test you ran above worked (you could download the sitemap using the URL you gave Google), your Sitemaps will be accessed by Google within a few days.

I just installed the VBSEO Sitemap and manually ran the sitepmap generator but I dont see any sitempas here.

Any ideas why?

Thanks

Originally Posted by nima

I just installed the VBSEO Sitemap and manually ran the sitepmap generator but I dont see any sitempas here.

Any ideas why?

Thanks

The correct link is http://www.hookahlounge.net/shisha-f...p_index.xml.gz, and that URL does work for me.

Looks like its working fine, assuming you only want to index URLs that are under /shisha-forum/.

Hi Ace,

I've followed this overview, selected for my sitemap to be added and this is the error message i've received:

Your Sitemap does not appear to be in a supported format. Please ensure it meets our Sitemap guidelines and resubmit

I tried it for both /sitemap_title.xml.gz and forum/sitemap_title.xml.gz just to make sure

Can you help?

Callum

Hi Callum,

I can access phonedevil.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz and phonedevil.com/sitemap1.xml.gz.

Are those what you are entering into the Google Webmasters box?

Originally Posted by Ace Shattock

Hi Callum,

I can access phonedevil.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz and phonedevil.com/sitemap1.xml.gz.

Are those what you are entering into the Google Webmasters box?

Hi Ace,

Yep i've been using phonedevil.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz

I haven't tried sitemap1 though, should I try that? (I didn't really understand what it was)

Many thanks

Callum

Add all of the ones that are generated - more URLs you include, more sitemap*.xml.gz will be generated.

Just remember, if you prune your posts, or change the number of pages per sitemap, you will need to go in and delete any of the old ones that are no longer being generated, so the non-active URLs in those are not recorded by Google. (You can tell, because their 'Date Created' will be way out of synch with the current maps.)

Originally Posted by Ace Shattock

Add all of the ones that are generated - more URLs you include, more sitemap*.xml.gz will be generated.

Just remember, if you prune your posts, or change the number of pages per sitemap, you will need to go in and delete any of the old ones that are no longer being generated, so the non-active URLs in those are not recorded by Google. (You can tell, because their 'Date Created' will be way out of synch with the current maps.)

Cheers Ace!

Ah okay then, since finding out about sitemaps I had always assumed that a website only had one of them.

I've just submitted sitemap_1.xml.gz, and it worked!
It's much bigger than sitemap_index.xml.gz so perhaps sitemap_index is old? The thing is, they were both last modified at the same time...(roughly 18 hours ago).

I changed my permalink structure about a week and a half ago in case that's of any relevance.

Bedtime for me now (4am here, up at 7...must quit the day job!) - thanks so much for your help!

Callum

Originally Posted by callumbush

I've just submitted sitemap_1.xml.gz, and it worked!
It's much bigger than sitemap_index.xml.gz so perhaps sitemap_index is old? The thing is, they were both last modified at the same time...(roughly 18 hours ago).

Heh, no.. the "index" one contains links to all of your other ones, that's all, hence it being smaller.

ahhh okay, very logical!
What should I do to make its format be accepted by google webmaster tools?

I've just logged onto google webmaster tools from work and it doesn't appear to recognise that I have already been using it ...it asked for my url again, and also for me to verify myself - has this happened to you before?

Are you using the latest version of the sitemap generator?

Yep v2.1?

I haven't installed this add-on though, as I have been waiting for the new version to be released

vBSEO Sitemap Update with 3.2.0 Release Candidates

Any thoughts on this?

p.s. I've gone from pretty much nowhere in the google result rankings, to the FIRST page for a few of the search queries that I tried....in ONE day!!!! love you guys....

That's a pretty good start.