SitemapXML v.2

llynix:

One note however. If you generate a sitemap, then change a configuration, manually delete that sitemap before you generate a new one. Otherwise the old one stays around because there was nothing to update.

readme.txt:

Support 4 $_GET parameters:
... skipped ...
rebuild=yes - force rebuild all sitemap.xml files.*

DivaVocals:

Yes.. there are two steps in this mod.

1. Create
2. Submit
   You can join this two steps. readme.txt:
   Support 4 $_GET parameters:
   ping=yes - Pinging Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com and Microsoft.

inline=yes - output file sitemapindex.xml. In Google Webmaster Tools you can define your "Sitemap URL":
http://your_domain/index.php?main_page=sitemapxml&inline=yes
And every time Google will get http://your_domain/index.php?main_page=sitemapxml he will receive a fresh sitemapindex.xml.

genxml=no - don't generate xml-files.

rebuild=yes - force rebuild all sitemap*.xml files.

Quick question... Do I need to create and register accounts with all the search engines the sitemaps are submitted to?

Thanks.

gaffettape:

Quick question... Do I need to create and register accounts with all the search engines the sitemaps are submitted to?

Thanks.

It helps :P It'll take all of about 30 minutes.

I've found that making a 'seoadmin@yourwebsite. om' email account and using that for the SEO sign-ups, reply, verif emails comes in handy.

I also use WebCEO (free) for checking the pages, optimization, ranking, etc. and there's a submission tool within it as well. A lot of the other engines require an email address so they can send a verification email to - so the seoadmin@ (or whatever...) is nice to have.

Have fun.

Fez-o Joe:

It helps :P It'll take all of about 30 minutes.

I've found that making a 'seoadmin@yourwebsite. om' email account and using that for the SEO sign-ups, reply, verif emails comes in handy.

I also use WebCEO (free) for checking the pages, optimization, ranking, etc. and there's a submission tool within it as well. A lot of the other engines require an email address so they can send a verification email to - so the seoadmin@ (or whatever...) is nice to have.

Have fun.

Thanks for the reply & also the heads up on WebCEO :smile:

I've got a wierd problem with this wonderful addon.

Suddenly all my products shows double in the sitemap. All other pages just once, but all my products twice.

What is wrong?

.. I wish I had that problem! .. with mine the categories show up in google but the individual products don't - has anyone experienced this? .. if so what should I do to fix it?

_thanks

anyone had a problem with the sitemaps for google merchant center? When I try to upload them myself it says "disapproved". But when I ping it from the admin it says it was successful but I'm still not getting my many products listed. In complete contrary to this yahoo is doing the opposite - they say that the sitemaps were processed yet it says there was CURL error when I ping yahoo - I can't find anything of my site with their searches.

Can anyone assist with this?

Thanks_

I had a problem getting ours recognized since we have 'non-standard' product headings - and had to look at the google 'product description tree' to decide where our products fit, then make a hard edit of the xml file before uploading manually... and got all the products up and listed.

We were getting that same message until we submitted with the right product category.

I asked about where in the php it sets that, since I'd just do a replace - but no one has answered that yet. (it'd make my life a tad bit easier, and allow the automated cron job to work.)

Good luck - hope that answers it.

Have fun.

g_force:

anyone had a problem with the sitemaps for google merchant center? When I try to upload them myself it says "disapproved". But when I ping it from the admin it says it was successful but I'm still not getting my many products listed. In complete contrary to this yahoo is doing the opposite - they say that the sitemaps were processed yet it says there was CURL error when I ping yahoo - I can't find anything of my site with their searches.

Can anyone assist with this?

Thanks_
The sitemap is NOT a GoogleBase file. You have to use something like Google Base Feeder to create the file for Merchant Center.
JOhn ><>

whoops - yeah... what he said... I'm getting my Zen threads crossed. The Base Feeder works well.

g_force:

In complete contrary to this yahoo is doing the opposite - they say that the sitemaps were processed yet it says there was CURL error when I ping yahoo - I can't find anything of my site with their searches.

Can anyone assist with this?

Thanks_
This an issue with Yahoo. I had the same issue for several weeks before they started accepting the pings from two of my sites.
JOhn ><>

.. Thanks for the responses so far ..

The sitemap is NOT a GoogleBase file. You have to use something like Google Base Feeder to create the file for Merchant Center.

Is that something that I can automate in google? I have a lot of products so wouldn't want to have to produce it manually - that is what I thought this add on was for.

_thanks

g_force:

Is that something that I can automate in google?
The issue with yahoo has already been discussed lengthily in this thread.
There is a mod called Google Base Feeder with its own support thread.
SitemapXML is not for that purpose.

g_force:

.. Thanks for the responses so far ..

Is that something that I can automate in google? I have a lot of products so wouldn't want to have to produce it manually - that is what I thought this add on was for.

_thanks

ckosloff:

The issue with yahoo has already been discussed lengthily in this thread.
There is a mod called Google Base Feeder with its own support thread.
SitemapXML is not for that purpose.Ckosloff is right.. This mod serves a completely different purpose.. additionally though both mods generate an XML file. Google's requirements for the contents of the Google Merchant XML feeds are quite different than the XML sitemap files generated by this mod. In essence, you will need to do both mods..

Hi,
I've read through all the pages but it seems a few people have the same problem as I do but there is no answer.

In the URL's in the sitemap I get language=en added to all, it doesn't matter if Generate language_id for default language is on or off either?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers!

I don't know what I messed up....but I killed my website.

I installed Sitemap according to the instructions in the readme, carefully followed the directions and moved everything into the correct directories - but I didn't read this thread first, so I didn't know that I shouldn't have uploaded the install.sql file (instead of copy/paste). My admin login and functionality works fine, but the store comes up completely blank....

I deleted every Sitemap file and ran the uninstall.sql, but of course that didn't bring back the store. I also checked all the standard files for the store that I know about - but I am not a ZenCart (or a website) genius, so there must be something I am missing....

Someone please help! :oops:

ckosloff:

Regarding this pesky Yahoo thing, I have been giving it some thought.
First, let me say that it is happy for me now, and I have the %s back in there.
So, whether you use the variable or not should not make a difference.
A 403 error means the server is denying access, it is basically saying "forbidden", therefore a full authentication process should fix this, since they want to verify that the owner of the site is pinging and not someone else, possibly to prevent DoS attacks.
Also, you do have to update your sitemap before pinging.
If manually you hit repeatedly step 2 in Tools -> Sitemap XML, Yahoo will throw the damn error, the other SE will not complain.
But, if you hit step 1 first and then step 2, it will be happy.
I have my cron set to do this automatically, according to instructions, so it is happy now.
I think I got the error back because that day I was testing the thing a lot, and missing step 1.
I think Yahoo got burned since the last DoS attack and are now overly cautious.
For the moment, I would say that the fix is authentication + updating.
Hopefully.
Not just yahoo, I get an 403 error from google also. This just started to happen. Any ideas would be appreciated.

armyabn1:

I don't know what I messed up....but I killed my website.

I installed Sitemap according to the instructions in the readme, carefully followed the directions and moved everything into the correct directories - but I didn't read this thread first, so I didn't know that I shouldn't have uploaded the install.sql file (instead of copy/paste). My admin login and functionality works fine, but the store comes up completely blank....

I deleted every Sitemap file and ran the uninstall.sql, but of course that didn't bring back the store. I also checked all the standard files for the store that I know about - but I am not a ZenCart (or a website) genius, so there must be something I am missing....

Someone please help! :oops:

NEVERMIND....figured it out..... I had placed a META tag in the wrong header file.....

didn't know that would crash the whole system :shocking:

A few random questions on this mod:

1. Should you really leave the permissions set to 777 on the .xml files in the root directory of your site? I've set mine back to 644, but I'm guessing this willl prevent sitemap from updating with the cron job.

2. Google returns that my sitemap contains no urls. Why? I've installed as per the instructions, renamed the googlesitemap.php.txt file, and run "step 1 and 2" from within the site admin.

3. Are the default settings as installed ok for most sites?

4. Testimonials??? Does Zencart have this function, or am I being really thick?

Running 1.3.8a, and sitemapxml 2.1.0.

www.sole-sisters.co.uk