XF 2.0 Sitemap

[JoyFreak]

I was just wondering does the sitemap have to be a .txt or .xml file as I know that the Xenforo uses .php?

 

[Paul B]

Nothing is required as far as the sitemap is concerned - XF generates and submits it automatically.

 

[JoyFreak]

Submits it to Google and Bing only, but what about other search engines?
I just noticed that it also uses .xml

 

[Chris D]

In XF2 you can add multiple ping URLs so if a particular search engine supports it you can add their ping URL in the options.

Searching for “ping” in the Admin CP should bring that up.

 

[JoyFreak]

Nothing with the word 'ping' is coming up. i think you mean the XML sitemap generation in options right?

How would I find the ping url for a search engine?

 

[Chris D]

Yeah it's in there.

If they have a ping URL it will be in their documentation somewhere.

 

[rbirkey]

I don't understand how the XF 2 sitemap feature works. I see it there in my Admin console and it looks like it is turned on and supposed to be working. However, my Google Search Console does not seem to see the sitemap. There does not seem to be a way to even direct Google to see it. Any ideas or suggestions here?

 

[JoyFreak]

You have to type sitemap.xml and add it yourself.

 

[Chris D]

sitemap.php not sitemap.xml

 

[rbirkey]

Sorry, but that doesn't help much. If that is required, why or where is that information communicated to a new XF 2 user/owner? In other words, type "sitemap.php" where?

 

[Chris D]

Well, under "Add/Test Sitemap" there's a text field. Add "sitemap.php" there to submit your sitemap to Google.

This page:



...tells you what your sitemap URL is.

"The current sitemap can be accessed via sitemap.php"

 

[rbirkey]

Wow... that is just really not very clear. Thanks for the tips and help - much appreciated. Looks like it worked!

 

[JoyFreak]

sitemap.php not sitemap.xml

I’ve been submitting .xml files rather than .php as both google and bing don’t mention .php as supported formate but rather .xml they do.

 

[Chris D]

sitemap.xml will probably work, but it depends on the specific XF version as it was only added recently. It might depend on whether friendly URLs are enabled or not too.

sitemap.php will work in all cases as far as I'm aware, the issue that led to us adding support for catching sitemap.xml was actually when you have a large number of entries, and it generates an index file, like this one: https://xenforo.com/community/sitemap.xml

It seemed that sitemap.php was still being read and found and processed, but it was struggling to read the old format URLs, which were previously sitemap.php?c=1 sitemap.php?c=2 etc. (Was probably the query string being stripped off or something). After we added support for these being sitemap-1.xml etc. that issue seemed to be resolved.

 

[JoyFreak]

I am using version 2.0.2 and have friendly URLs enabled.

So should I go ahead and change my sitemap submission on Bing and Google to .php just in case?

 

[JoyFreak]

I went by these urls:
Google: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/183668?hl=en
Bing: https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/how-to-submit-sitemaps-82a15bd4

and none say .php

 

[Chris D]

If you’re running 2.0.2 you’re fine.

If anyone goes to sitemap.xml on their site and it loads an XML file, they’ll be fine. If not then sitemap.php will always work.

 

[NicolasZN]

Hi Chris: I'm experiencing the same (or a similar) problem. I submitted /sitemap.php to Google and it had more than 50,000 URLs.
I tried ?c=2 and that's an "invalid sitemap file".
I know Xenforo is meant to submit these to Google automatically, but after my site moved we dropped out of Google searches entirely so I'm working to repair that now.

 

[ThinkingFox]

the issue that led to us adding support for catching sitemap.xml was actually when you have a large number of entries, and it generates an index file, like this one: https://xenforo.com/community/sitemap.xml

Hi @Chris D , I have a 5,000 thread site that is generating an enormous sitemap.xml file - doesn't seem to want to index it like yours. Am I missing a config setting or something else? Right now I can only set it to show nodes

 

[Chris D]

If only nodes are showing in the sitemap then you likely need to go to Admin CP > Setup > Options > XML sitemap generation and make sure that you have "Thread" checked under "Include sitemap content"

If that is already checked, go to Admin CP > Tools > Rebuild caches > and run the "Rebuild sitemap" job to see if anything changes.