What is a good sitemap generator for VBulletin?

What is a good sitemap generator for VBulletin?

I just bought VB and realized that VB doesn't come with a sitemap generator built in, which i think is odd...

but does anyone know a good sitemap generator for VB?

Cheers,
Nima

 

check out vbulletin.org

 

Yea, i just found that... I'm looking at their ad-ons

Is there anyone here who uses VBSEO? Any reviews on that?

 

Many.

Summary:

1. You don't need the mod_rewrite feature and I don't recommend it for several reasons.

2. Everything useful that vBSEO does for $160 you can get from the Zoints SEO add-on for free (or you can do yourself if you're familiar with PHP and HTML).

 

I'm not too concerned with static and dynamic pages and I already am using another hack that puts <h1> and <h2> tags on my forum posts...

I think the next thing i need a sitemap generator...

 

Try http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=100435&highlight=sitemap+google (download at http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=44445 ). This is created by the vBSEO people but does NOT apparently require you to purchase vBSEO.

This is rated for versions 3.0x and 3.5x but may well work with 3.6x as well.

 

Minstrel is correct. The vBSEO Sitemaps vBulletin Product is free and does not require the paid vBSEO mod-rewrite add on.

 

The VBSEO Google Sitemaps mod for vB.

 

I can confirm it works with vB 3.6 aswell.

 

Confirmed. vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap generator is a free plugin and does not require you to have vBSEO installed. It is fully compatible with both vBSEO and non-vBSEO enabled forums.

By the way, if you are considering vBSEO, we recommend that you install it prior to adding our sitemap tool.

This will ensure that when Google and Yahoo are notified of all of your URLs, then will be notified of the vBSEO-enabled URL format the first time rather than having to update later.

 

I think VBSEO seems like a good option...

But I will wait maybe couple more months to take care of some more core issues with my site before buying it...

Apparently it 301 redirects the dynamic pages to the new static pages that it creates so it doesn't matter if the forum has been running by itself for a while...


Cheers,
Nima

 

vBSEO will help any forum, new or old. However, we certainly recommend that new forums install it from the beginning.

While our 301 redirects ensure that the search engines will find all of your currently indexed pages and update them, it is preferable that you do not allow the search engine bots to waste crawling activity on your old URL formats.

For forums that have been running for some time, and have just discovered vBSEO, the 301 redirects provide the update mechanism you need.

 

1. You don't need mod_rewrite / static URLs. And there are downsides to them.

2. If you decide you do want them nonetheless, the Zoints SEO add-on will do thit for you (as will other add-ons like vbRewrite) and all of the other things vBSEO does that matter - except Zoints SEO is free, not $160 USD.

 

Note: This user is mis-informed.

vBSEO is a full featured SEO solution, of which URL rewriting is one feature. Any of the simple hacks posted in the various vBulletin related forums do not compare.

With the vBSEO demo, you can view our vBSEO Control Panel (vbseocp.php) firsthand to see all of the hundreds of features and configuration options that are included.
http://www.vbseo.com/demo/

For feedback directly from some of the thousands of forum admins who have vBSEO-enabled their forums, please see here.

Trust your SEO to the definitive SEO enhancement for vBulletin: vBSEO. vBSEO is fully supported and constantly developed and improved by our dedicated full-time dev & support staff, as well as our team of volunteer moderators and pre-release vBSEO experts team.

Our thriving community at www.vbseo.com provides a great resource for vBulletin admins interested in SEO to exchange information and discuss issues related to the advancement and success of their forums.

 

While I still am not sure how static pages might help or not, I have to admit that some of the features that you have listed here: http://www.crawlability.com/vbseo/ are not that great. Also, some of the SEO advice is from a long time ago (ex. PageRank is not important anymore)...

I'll look around to see what i can do to optimize VB for SEs.

Cheers,
Nima

 

Hi minstrel,

I apologize if I have offended you in some way. However, I have tracked your messages on several forums. In circumstances where you provide inaccurate or misleading information regarding vBSEO, it is necessary to provide resources for vBulletin admins to find out about more about vBSEO.

Each of the elements in my postings are factual. We need to do our best to make sure noone misses out on the opportunity to vBSEO-enable their forum, due to misinformation posted by you.

I realize that this occurs due to your lack of familiarity with the professional vBSEO solution, and your possible exposure to the limited mod_rewrite hacks provided in the past.

If you would like, I can refer you privately to someone who held a similar opinion to yours until he was able to test vBSEO firsthand, and is now a strong advocate for having all forums get vBSEO-enabled.

Bullet point summary:

• The vBSEO solution, is not limited to URL Rewriting (mod_rewrite)
• Likewise, the vBSEO demo allows users to see all of the vBSEO features before purchasing
• At www.vbseo.com you can get feedback from thousands of vBSEO customers, or read their testimonials, posts, progress tracking for their vBSEO experience.
• vBSEO is fully supported by a full time staff, as well as forum moderators, a pre-release team, and even other customers.
• www.vBSEO.com is a great community, focused on discussion of matters related to vBulletin SEO.

 

It's my understanding that URL Rewriting does not have a significant affect on SEO anymore. So if VBSEO offers other features other than URL Rewriting:

1- Is URL Rewriting the main feature of VBSEO?
2- What are the important features that makes VBSEO so special?


Nima

 

1. Our CRU (Content Relevant URL) features is among our primary features, and are an important aspect of successful SEO.

2. vBSEO contains hundreds of features and configuration options. Quick summary:

- A fully configurable vBSEO control panel with multi-language support

- Fully configurable URL Rewrites, with presets, URL length restriction, and advanced rel=nofollow attribute placement. The only URL Rewriting plugin that exists that fully rewrites every applicable URL, for total elimination of duplicate content, and 100% link consensus of incoming linkbacks.
- Rewritten URLs are included in all email notifications sent from vBUlletin, and have security mechanisms built in for thread or forum URLs in private forums.
- All URL Rewriting Settings are 100% compatible with our sitemap generator.

- A complete 301 redirect structure so that old indexed content will be updated by Google and other search engines

- A fully configurable and moderated Linkback system handling pingbacks, trackbacks and vBSEO's own refbacks. A complex topic. More here: http://www.vbseo.com/misc.php?do=linkbacks

- Social bookmarking integration (Digg, technorati, etc)

- Custom Rewrite Rules system, with a simple configuration interface allowing any non-vBulletin URL integrated with your forum to be written, using vBSEO's CRR syntax.

- Custom 301 Redirects system, allowing admins to set-up custom 301 redirects whenever they move any content on their forum (vBulletin or non-vBulletin) to a new location, using a simple syntax.

- Relevant Replacements system, allowing relevant phrases to boost onpage relevancy of your top keywords on a page by page basis, dynamically generated. (Configured within the control panel with flexible template integration)

- Automatically use page title for links within a post (for links to internal or external pages), for more accurate anchor text.

- Full support for non-English characters (we have customers with forums in Arabic, Chinese, Turkish, etc.)

- Logging of Spider Activity (integration with our sitemap required)
- Automated Google Analytics integration
- Google AdSense targeting for boosted ad revenue

- Turn the vBulletin archive into a sitemap

- Stopword filtering, acronym expansion, homepage aliasing, HTML code cleanup (content to code ratio boost)

- rel=nofollow whitelisting and blacklisting

- Footer archive links, direct category links, guest only enhancements

- Image size attributes (dynamic application)



It's best to see the vBSEO demo for a better inside look.

 

Thanks for the info...

I think I made my mind. It doesn't seem like VBSEO has much SEO to offer to be worth as much as VB itself. ( the only thing i like is the content relevant URL though)