Site map question:

[AnAccount]

Okay, I tried generating my site on Google Sitemap, and this is my results: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/details-www ... co.uk.html Perhaps I am better off submitting to search engines? How can it say that I've exceeded the 500 page limit, when Chattiing Time isn't even that big of a site? What all do they look for? Or are they looking at content, too?

 

[CyberFreak]

Basically it counts topics as pages aswell as each forum, index page, login and faq and so on. Sometimes it counts the same topic more then once using different urls such as for this topic it could be viewtopic.php?f=26&t=41096 and viewtopic.php?f=26&t=41096&start=0. It can also index individual posts like you first one - viewtopic.php?p=407607#p407607

All these count as a page so that it why you hit the 500 limit.

 

[AnAccount]

Ah, okay, that makes sense. This is the first time I have ever used something like this, so I honestly didn't know what to expect. I think from now on I'll stick to submitting to search engines.

 

[_20_]

Here's a free easy to install Sitemap mod for your forum you can try out:

http://www.phpbb.com/mods/db/index.php? ... b_id=11115

 

[AnAccount]

Okay, cool, I'll post about this site in the staff lounge at my forum and see if we can use something like that. Thanks for the link. +rep.

 

[JamesD31]

I think from now on I'll stick to submitting to search engines.

You do understand making a sitemap doesn't mean that they are or aren't submitted to the search engines. Also, DON'T submit EACH page you ever create, are you really going to go through 500+ pages and submit them all? What Google and other search engines do is they will do that automatically, what they use the sitemap for is to use it as like, a road map, to make sure and easily query and search those pages quicker.

 

[_20_]

Okay, cool, I'll post about this site in the staff lounge at my forum and see if we can use something like that. Thanks for the link. +rep.

However that sitemap mod makes the file called sitemap.php, but returns XML data.

I noticed that Google Webmaster Tools won't like the sitemap.php and call it in unsupported format, but here is a way to get around it. Add this Rewrite rule to your htaccess whenever you get the mod up and running:

RewriteRule ^sitemap.xml$ sitemap.php [L]

This will keep sitemap.php as is, but will rewrite it on access, so you can successfully submit it to GWT.

 

[Leo Ghost]

The point behind having a sitemap is simple, it tells the search engines where to look for data once they hit your site. Only a combination of submitting to search engines and having an up-to-date sitemap will allow all of your site to to index'd.