Site Map Too Big

I'm using vbSEO 3.0 and vbSEO-Sitemap 2.0 with vBulletin 3.6.4.

vbSEO-Sitemap is creating, splitting up, and indexing the normal sitemap fine however, the url re-written file it's creating is not splitting up and is way to big for Google and is causing errors.

I've had a look through all the options in both and can't find anything to tell it to split up the file and create a sitemap index file for it.

Also, I've told vbSEO-Sitemap to create the sitemap files in the site root folder but it insists on defaulting to the /vbSEO-Sitemap/data folder.

As usual, any words of wisdom greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Dave

In case it helps, this is the normal sitemap that vbSEO-sitemap writes (I moved it to the site root):

http://www.archery-interchange.com/sitemap_index.xml.gz

And this is the one it created with all the re-written urls:

http://www.archery-interchange.com/urllist.txt.gz

Ah, just noticed that the second one's a txt file and the re-written urls do appear in the main split of the generated sitemap...



So as not to waste this thread, what is the urllist.txt? And how do I get it to save the sitemap in the root rather than the data folder?

What is the error you get from Google?

Also, I've told vbSEO-Sitemap to create the sitemap files in the site root folder but it insists on defaulting to the /vbSEO-Sitemap/data folder.

Files should be stored in data/ folder, but they are still accessible via forums root using rewrite rules in .htaccess.

Originally Posted by Oleg Ignatiuk

What is the error you get from Google?

Cheers, Oleg, I think I've got the Google problem sorted now.

Files should be stored in data/ folder, but they are still accessible via forums root using rewrite rules in .htaccess.

Sorry to be a pain, but could you give me a few pointers as to what should be in the .htaccess file and in which location should it be placed (I'm presuming root, but I have been wrong before... )

Default vBSEO's .htaccess already includes required rewrite rule, so you should not change anything to get it working

This is what's already contained in the /forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/.htaccess file (seems to be the same code as the default .htaccess supplied with vbSEO):

Code:

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

But it doesn't seem to be writing the sitemap files to root

This is what's already contained in the /forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/.htaccess file (seems to be the same code as the default .htaccess supplied with vbSEO):

You should upload default .htaccess file from vBSEO Sitemap Generator package and do not modify it. There is no need to modify any .htaccess files if you already have vBSEO installed.

But it doesn't seem to be writing the sitemap files to root

It should never write sitemap files to the root. As mentioned above, all files are stored in the data/ folder.

Cheers, Oleg, it's all starting to slowly sink in

So, I submit the url http://www.mysite.com/forum to Google
The sitemap is stored in vbseo_sitemap/data
The .htaccess file directs Google to the sitemap files in the data folder

Yes, but:
1. you submit http://www.mysite.com/forum as a new *site* in webmaster account
2. then submit http://www.mysite.com/forum/sitemap_index.xml.gz for that site

Cheers, Oleg. I've done all that, now I'm getting errors from Google saying that

Originally Posted by Google

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

All 7 sitemap files pointed to by sitemap_index.xml.gz are "xml.gz" format.

Yet it seemed to read them fine when I was moving them into the site root!

I just submitted http://www.archery-interchange.com/f...p_index.xml.gz and got no errors:

sitemap_index.xml.gz Sitemap Index Web 12 minutes ago 10 minutes ago OK –