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Google XML Sitemap SEO


Jack_mcs

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Hi Everyone,

 

I recently installed this contribution and im having a few problems. The sitemap generates fine as well as allows me to submit it to google without any problems my first question is why do we have a sitemap for each of the following, index, product, category and so on. How come we don't have one that includes everything? Also doesn't the index already include everything or do we have to submit all of them seperately?

 

My next question is, when I submited my sitemap, i got a crawl error saying not found for all my links. Looking at the link good said we in my site for example this one http://www.bestmacdiscounts.com/product_info.php?cPath=14&products_id=55&osCsid=28d6829c26e4d1935807e67f22a6fa1b. yes it wont work because I don't know where they got that link from, my sitemap says something completely different and that one actually works. I think I'm having some trouble with my sitemap generating wrong or google not reading it right. my site map can be found @ http://www.bestmacdiscounts.com/sitemapindex.xml. a link in that sitemap shows me something like this http://www.bestmacdiscounts.com/product_info.php?products_id=59, which works when you click on it. But what I see google showing me is not the same. Huh?

 

Thanks in advance

Thank you in advance,

AE

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why do we have a sitemap for each of the following, index, product, category and so on. How come we don't have one that includes everything? Also doesn't the index already include everything or do we have to submit all of them seperately?

It's a way of organizing the data. Putting it all in one file is possible but can cause problems with larger sites. You can read the exact reasons in googles webmaster tools if it is important to you.

 

My next question is, when I submited my sitemap, i got a crawl error saying not found for all my links. Looking at the link good said we in my site for example this one http://www.bestmacdiscounts.com/product_info.php?cPath=14&products_id=55&osCsid=28d6829c26e4d1935807e67f22a6fa1b. yes it wont work because I don't know where they got that link from, my sitemap says something completely different and that one actually works. I think I'm having some trouble with my sitemap generating wrong or google not reading it right. my site map can be found @ http://www.bestmacdiscounts.com/sitemapindex.xml. a link in that sitemap shows me something like this http://www.bestmacdiscounts.com/product_info.php?products_id=59, which works when you click on it. But what I see google showing me is not the same. Huh?

You have a url rewriter installed in your shop but the links being created are standard oscommerce links. Plus, the first link you listed has the session ID attached, which it should not. Be sure to set the admin->Configuration->Sessions->Prevent Spiders to true.

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It's a way of organizing the data. Putting it all in one file is possible but can cause problems with larger sites. You can read the exact reasons in googles webmaster tools if it is important to you.

You have a url rewriter installed in your shop but the links being created are standard oscommerce links. Plus, the first link you listed has the session ID attached, which it should not. Be sure to set the admin->Configuration->Sessions->Prevent Spiders to true.

 

 

hey yes I have a Ultimate SEO installed, probably the latest version because I recently installed it. Anyways I just turned on that prvent spiders which I don't know what it does. Also it says session Id? I dont know what that means. but I'm guessing you mean products_id=59? or something?

Thank you in advance,

AE

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hey yes I have a Ultimate SEO installed, probably the latest version because I recently installed it. Anyways I just turned on that prvent spiders which I don't know what it does. Also it says session Id? I dont know what that means. but I'm guessing you mean products_id=59? or something?

There are different versions of Ultimate SEO floating around. I recommend 2.2d-7. Others may not work. The session ID is that long list of characters at the end of the url, That is for internal use only and if the search engines get a hold of it, it can cause your site serveral problems. The setting I mentioned prevents the search engines from seeing it.

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There are different versions of Ultimate SEO floating around. I recommend 2.2d-7. Others may not work. The session ID is that long list of characters at the end of the url, That is for internal use only and if the search engines get a hold of it, it can cause your site serveral problems. The setting I mentioned prevents the search engines from seeing it.

 

The long list of characters is what google showed me as "not found" error. But the sitemap links that are generated from the contributions are found when you check them. will this "prevent spider session" solve the issue or what? I have also downloaded another XML contribution after this one didn't work. What do you recommend for me to do. Can you take a look at my sitemap because the links on it work perfectly. I'll give the other contribution a try as well. What I don't understand is why the links the sitemap generates and what google said didn't find don't look a like at all. And all links returned huh?

 

Thanks

AE

Thank you in advance,

AE

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The long list of characters is what google showed me as "not found" error. But the sitemap links that are generated from the contributions are found when you check them. will this "prevent spider session" solve the issue or what? I have also downloaded another XML contribution after this one didn't work. What do you recommend for me to do. Can you take a look at my sitemap because the links on it work perfectly. I'll give the other contribution a try as well. What I don't understand is why the links the sitemap generates and what google said didn't find don't look a like at all. And all links returned huh?

The session ID doesn't have anything to do with this contribution. It is a site setting and that needs to be fixed before you do anything else. Links with session ID's are still valid links, which is what makes them so dangerous. With a session ID, I can log into one of your customers accounts if it is active. When you place the session ID's in links on the web via the search engines, you are are giving that access to anyone seeing it. This thread isn't meant for fixing such problem though so if you are still having difficulty figuring out how to get the settings correct, you should post in the general forum. Once that is fixed, you can try this, or any other contribution you wish, again without worry of doing your site harm.

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The session ID doesn't have anything to do with this contribution. It is a site setting and that needs to be fixed before you do anything else. Links with session ID's are still valid links, which is what makes them so dangerous. With a session ID, I can log into one of your customers accounts if it is active. When you place the session ID's in links on the web via the search engines, you are are giving that access to anyone seeing it. This thread isn't meant for fixing such problem though so if you are still having difficulty figuring out how to get the settings correct, you should post in the general forum. Once that is fixed, you can try this, or any other contribution you wish, again without worry of doing your site harm.

 

Hey but these links with session id's is what google reported not found. Anyways i notice that each link unfound had 2 pages linking to it. From What I think its my similar products infobox within my product info page. But my question is, why is things causing and isuse with google. Also how do I know if the files in the sitemap are actually ok with google? Anyways these session id's were only found by google. I don't know how but i did turn on preventing session spiders . I hope that helps hide that id. But regarding your contribution. Any link shown in the sitemap is what google will see right? maybe the not found links the crawl has was found some other how?

 

Oh also think i installed ULTIMATE_Seo_Urls_5_r141_stable as my rewritting URL contribution. In the procedure of that contribution it allowed you to stop around 75% of the way because it should have worked. If I continued, I would have been able to actually rewrite the links manually completely, instead of have something like http://www.bestmacdiscounts.com/product_info.php/ipod-nano-8gb16gb-p-69 i can rewrite it to something else. So what do you think because the links the sitemap generates are valid they are not as the one above right now but when clicked they go to the page. If you can take a look at it and let me know. I'm really surprised where all these weird not found links are coming from.

 

Thanks

AE

Edited by aelalfy1989

Thank you in advance,

AE

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Any link shown in the sitemap is what google will see right?

Yes, that's correct.

 

Oh also think i installed ULTIMATE_Seo_Urls_5_r141_stable as my rewritting URL contribution. In the procedure of that contribution it allowed you to stop around 75% of the way because it should have worked. If I continued, I would have been able to actually rewrite the links manually completely, instead of have something like http://www.bestmacdiscounts.com/product_info.php/ipod-nano-8gb16gb-p-69 i can rewrite it to something else. So what do you think because the links the sitemap generates are valid they are not as the one above right now but when clicked they go to the page.

This contribution works correctly with Ultimate SEO v 2.2d, which is what I recommend. If it doesn't work with some other rewriter, you'll need to ask in the support thread for that contribution since I don't support the others.

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I'm trying to install this contribution and stuck on Step 3. So, how do I Run the google_xml_sitemap_seo.sql file using phpmyadmin? Where can I find phpmyadmin? And how do I run the file? Thanks so much in advance, Jack! I also just installed ULTIMATE_Seo_Urls_5_r141_stable. Will this one work with ULTIMATE_Seo_Urls_5_r141_stable? Thanks a ton!!!

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I checked the table configuration_group and configuration. Not a trace :S Ill give it a run and report back.....

 

Well I added it, and it worked as normal :) There were two entries in the Google XML Sitemap controls but it wasn't a problem.

 

It continued to work as normal, generating overnight etc and now has just stopped working again. Same fault, entries missing from SQL Tables :S

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I'm trying to install this contribution and stuck on Step 3. So, how do I Run the google_xml_sitemap_seo.sql file using phpmyadmin? Where can I find phpmyadmin? And how do I run the file? Thanks so much in advance, Jack! I also just installed ULTIMATE_Seo_Urls_5_r141_stable. Will this one work with ULTIMATE_Seo_Urls_5_r141_stable? Thanks a ton!!!

Phpmyadmin is usually included in a hosts control panel. See google search results for more details. I don't know if that version of Ultimate SEO will work or not.

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Well I added it, and it worked as normal :) There were two entries in the Google XML Sitemap controls but it wasn't a problem.

 

It continued to work as normal, generating overnight etc and now has just stopped working again. Same fault, entries missing from SQL Tables :S

Does "two entries in the Google XML Sitemap controls" mean two entries in the admin settings for this contribution? If so, then you've got a problem right from the start and should stop there to fix that.

 

I've no idea what "entries missing from SQL Tables :S" means since there is no table s in this contribution but if it works and then dies, something is wrong with your shop. Some ealier versions of Ultimate SEO would delete database entries. Maybe that is the problem?

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Phpmyadmin is usually included in a hosts control panel. See google search results for more details. I don't know if that version of Ultimate SEO will work or not.

 

I found the place to run the query. I copied and pasted the content in the file google_xml_sitemap_seo.sql, and clicked "go". But it showed an error page:

 

"Error

 

SQL query:

 

INSERT INTO configuration_group( configuration_group_id, configuration_group_title, configuration_group_description, sort_order, visible )

VALUES (

'289', 'Google XML SEO', 'Google XML Sitemap SEO Options', '29', '1'

);

 

MySQL said: Documentation

#1046 - No database selected?

 

What did I do wrong? Thank you so much for your help Jack!

 

 

Sabrina

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MySQL said: Documentation

#1046 - No database selected?

 

What did I do wrong? Thank you so much for your help Jack!

You have to select the database (left column of phpmyadmin) that you want to install the change into. The error is saying you didn't do that.

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You have to select the database (left column of phpmyadmin) that you want to install the change into. The error is saying you didn't do that.

 

Hi Jack,

 

Thanks so much for your help! I have it installed and it showed the success message, but when I went to http://YOUR_DOMAIN/googlesitemap/index.php, it shows:

 

"Page not found

The page you are looking for might have been removed,

had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Please try the following:

 

If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.

 

- Click the Back button in your browser to try another link.

- Use a search engine like Google to look for information on the Internet.

HTTP 404 - File not found"

 

I tried all the options you provided in the readme file, such as change the alternate class and enable the diagnostic option. Would you please help me to take a look to see what I did wrong?

 

Thanks so much, Jack!

 

 

Sabrina

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http://YOUR_DOMAIN/googlesitemap/index.php, it shows:

 

"Page not found

That error is saying the contributions files can't be found. Be sure you have uploaded the googlesitemap directory and, if you did, that it was uploaded to the correct location (the root of the shop).

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That error is saying the contributions files can't be found. Be sure you have uploaded the googlesitemap directory and, if you did, that it was uploaded to the correct location (the root of the shop).

 

Hi Jack,

 

I did upload all the files. I updated 7 files (gss etc.) and the googlesitemap folder to the root of the shop. All the files in the googlesitemap folder were uploaded to this folder too. How come it still shows the page not found?

 

Thanks soooooooo much for all your time and help!

 

 

Sabrina

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It's teenyshoesmart.com. Thanks so much Jack, for all your help! I really really appreciate it :-)

You're welcome. :)

 

Your shop is located in the shop directory, not the root of your hosting account. So the correct url is http://teenyshoesmart.com/shop/googlesitemap/index.php. If you go there, you will see the sitemap. It isn't working but that is probably because you have the wrong type selected in the settings, permissions on the sitemap fles are incorrect or something like that.

 

By the way, if you don't mind saying, I would like to know what url rewriter are you using? I recently saw it in use on another site and it is not doing a very good job of rewriting the urls. It's going to cause you problems if you ever switch off of it. This isn't the place for discussing this but I would like to know its name so I can advise against it. If you do stick with it, once this contribution is working, be sure to check the sitemaps to make sure the urls it creates match those of the url rewriter, or you will have even more problems.

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You're welcome. :)

 

Your shop is located in the shop directory, not the root of your hosting account. So the correct url is http://teenyshoesmart.com/shop/googlesitemap/index.php. If you go there, you will see the sitemap. It isn't working but that is probably because you have the wrong type selected in the settings, permissions on the sitemap fles are incorrect or something like that.

 

By the way, if you don't mind saying, I would like to know what url rewriter are you using? I recently saw it in use on another site and it is not doing a very good job of rewriting the urls. It's going to cause you problems if you ever switch off of it. This isn't the place for discussing this but I would like to know its name so I can advise against it. If you do stick with it, once this contribution is working, be sure to check the sitemaps to make sure the urls it creates match those of the url rewriter, or you will have even more problems.

 

 

Hi Jack,

 

Thanks so much for all your help and suggestions. I really need those as I'm very new to all this stuff :-) I saw it wasn't working right too. So, where do I change the settings and permissions of the sitemap file?

 

I just installed Ultimate SEO URL 5. Would you mind telling me a little bit more about the problems I might have. Should I uninstall it? What url rewriter would you recommend? As I mentioned that I'm really new to all this stuff and your help is really really appreciated :-)

 

Sabrina

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Hi Jack,

 

Thanks so much for all your help and suggestions. I really need those as I'm very new to all this stuff :-) I saw it wasn't working right too. So, where do I change the settings and permissions of the sitemap file?

From the instructions:

2) Set the file permissions on the sitemap... files to the same settings on the images directory.

 

4) Go to admin->Configuration->Google XML SEO and set the options to your liking.

 

I just installed Ultimate SEO URL 5. Would you mind telling me a little bit more about the problems I might have. Should I uninstall it? What url rewriter would you recommend? As I mentioned that I'm really new to all this stuff and your help is really really appreciated :-)

 

Sabrina

The url includes product_info.php, for products, which shouldn't be in there. It needlessly lengthens the url and the search engines don't like long urls, which could affect your position in their listings. It also uses a format that is not compatible with other SEO contributions. I know the author was trying to fix that but I don't know if has been done. Like I said, once this contribution is working, look at the urls that are created. If they are the same as on the actual site, then they will work and it's up to you as to whehter you want to keep those urls or not. If they are different, then you have a problem and it needs to be fixed. The other problem is that the most popular seo rewriter is Ultimate SEO V2 but it won't recognize the urls from the one you are using. So if you ran your site the way it is now for a while and the search engines indexed those pages and then you dediced to switch contributions for some reason, all of those listings would be invalid since the links would not work. I recommend Ultimate SEO 2.2d but am not trying to convince you to switch. You just need to be aware of the problems with that contribution.

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From the instructions:

2) Set the file permissions on the sitemap... files to the same settings on the images directory.

 

4) Go to admin->Configuration->Google XML SEO and set the options to your liking.

 

 

I actually don't know how to change the permissions on the files in Oscommerce. Do you mind direct me through? Thanks so much for your suggestions about the url rewriter. I'll definitely check into that :-)

 

Sabrina

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