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Author Topic: Forum Sitemaps  (Read 419 times)
pulse
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« on: June 24, 2007, 06:35:29 am »
I wanted to add my forum to Google webmaster tools but there is no built-in sitemap for the forum package I use (SMF) 

Is there any benefit in submitting a forum to Google Sitemaps?
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Chatty Kathy
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« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2007, 12:55:28 pm »
I believe there is quite a benefit.  You should put a robot file in there too so that they do not index all those PHP files unnecessarily.  The main thing I can think of for you to put in your forum site map is
forum
topic
images (maybe)
index

maybe something like this

Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84"
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84
 http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84/sitemap.xsd">
  <url>
  <loc>http://www.YOUR-FORUM.com/index.php</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
  <loc>http://www.YOUR-FORUM.com/viewforum.php</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
  <loc>http://www.YOUR-FORUM.com/viewtopic.php</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
  <loc>http://www.YOUR-FORUM.com/images/</loc>
  </url>
  </urlset>

I would block all that other stuff (of course your SM code will have different files, I'd imagine)
Code:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /db/
Disallow: /includes/
Disallow: /language/
Disallow: /templates/
Disallow: /common.php
Disallow: /config.php
Disallow: /faq.php
Disallow: /groupcp.php
Disallow: /login.php
Disallow: /memberlist.php
Disallow: /modcp.php
Disallow: /posting.php
Disallow: /privmsg.php
Disallow: /profile.php
Disallow: /search.php
Disallow: /viewonline.php
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Smiley
wylte
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« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2007, 12:05:24 am »
I am using punbb, which has just a new mod to create the sitemap.
Maybe contact the mod writers, they are great for working on it. Smiley
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Wylte
eliteKaiser
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« Reply #3 on: July 26, 2007, 07:12:35 am »
Thanks for that info! It's very helpful; although I've no idea if vBulletin comes with a sitemap or not, would you please be able to inform me as to if it does, where I would go about finding it and if/how I can edit it.? Thanks!
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billo
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« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2007, 02:24:30 am »
I am wondering that we can't do this through Robot.txt. I think Google crawlers look for this file at the most and it should be placed in root directory. I might be wrong because I didn't implement this. It is good if there is some mod available. Is PUNBB is free to use?
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toshmahorey
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« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2007, 07:24:05 am »
yes, billo, you can use robots.txt to limit the crawlers and you should certainly do this as an alternative to using "rel=nofollow" tags on your links in your forum.  it wil help preserve PR for your main pages (where you want it!) and it wil keep your otber pages (like member lists etc.) out of the SE index.

yes, punbb is free.  http://www.punbb.org/
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billo
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« Reply #6 on: August 01, 2007, 02:49:18 am »
Quote from: toshmahorey on July 31, 2007, 07:24:05 am
yes, billo, you can use robots.txt to limit the crawlers and you should certainly do this as an alternative to using "rel=nofollow" tags on your links in your forum.  it wil help preserve PR for your main pages (where you want it!) and it wil keep your otber pages (like member lists etc.) out of the SE index.

yes, punbb is free.  http://www.punbb.org/


Thanks for your kind instructions. Is it possible to shift forum database from PHPBB2 to PUNBB? I am wondering that it would be very difficult for a newbie like me but is it possible or I am thinking about an exception?
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shreyas
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« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2007, 08:08:37 am »
I think there's a plugin in SMF to create sitemaps.
Just Googles it and I think I got a link: here

This should give you the highest chance of getting your site indexed in Google/Yahoo and many other Search Engines.
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