[Official mod] Sitemap

[ziycon]

Can you folks - those who would like to see this feature in SMF - please point out to me what does your sitemap contain, or what do you think it will usually contain?

I agree, I would like to see a sitemap as standard functionality, maybe not to link all topics(maybe optional if this is added) but at minimum its would list all boards and child boards that are visible to guests. Also maybe add a variable to the board create/modify page so that you can give that board a priority for the sitemap.

This is the board index page though.

I admit I don't see why a sitemap should belong in SMF - meaning in a forum package, although I can understand why it is good to have a fully grown site (with a forum and other pages or even software). It is indeed good to have when you have a number of additional pages. Am I missing something?

I understand that this is only information on the board index but it might be a case that someone might only want/require the boards to be in the sitemap, if they have thousands of topics that can make for a very big sitemap, depending on how many times a search engine downloads or crawls the sitemap it could take a big lump of bandwidth.

I kinda understand why people might not want the sitemap due to it only listing forum pages and if the forum was integrated to a site it wouldn't accommodate for these outside pages.

[mr.Curiosity]

I agree, nice

[InfoStrides]

I support the sitemap to be default feature of SMF but can be enable or disable from admin panel. If you need it, enable it; if you don't need, then disable it. Simple!

[bestfriendavinash]

Agree... sitemap should be there but the URL of sitemap should be SEO friendly..

Current sitemap url is <Forum Url/>index.php?action=sitemap;xml which is acceptable for google.. but not for aks and bing

ask and bing only accept in <Forum URL>/sitemap.xml url for sitemap...  hope you have got me

[garry383]

An xml sitemap is very useful.  A normal sitemap is about as useful as a flag as a parachute.

[Antechinus]

I support the sitemap to be default feature of SMF but can be enable or disable from admin panel. If you need it, enable it; if you don't need, then disable it. Simple!

Why do you support it?

[InfoStrides]

I support the sitemap to be default feature of SMF but can be enable or disable from admin panel. If you need it, enable it; if you don't need, then disable it. Simple!

Why do you support it?

I support the idea but only gave the clause to satisfy the need of those that may not need it. There are several features in SMF that some people do not use while some use them. Personally, I need the feature.

[Kindred]

then why not leave it as a mod? If you need it plug it in...

[Arantor]

I think the argument is to have it bundled conveniently with it so it is no more effort than turning on a core feature is currently. Mind you we all know how intuitive that idea turned out to be...

[redone]

Personally it would make sense to leave it as a plugin or mod.

[nend]

If you decide to do this core please don't include those useless HTML sitemaps that some developers pass off like a sitemap a search engine will really find useful. The only useful sitemap to a search engine is a XML sitemap, anything else is just wasting time and resources.

Although one may not help your rankings it makes it easier for search engines to find new stuff to index and IMHO get a link listed allot faster than traditional crawling alone.

To those who supporting argument is because the sitemap would be for the forum only, well have you heard of sitemap linking? You can have a main sitemap which contents contain other sitemaps. If sitemap linking is not for you did you know you can specify multiple sitemaps in your robots.txt?

So if I had to do a supporting argument I can compare it to RSS feeds which I don't use and SMF already has, so why not a XML sitemap.

[Arantor]

In a sitemap you have to indicate the relative importance of pages to each other, how do you indicate the relative priority in a forum, exactly?

I know what I've seen done (by SlammedDime's mod) but it doesn't seem like it'd really solve the problem...

[nend]

Priority is not important, you can make a sitemap without it and it will be just as good to search engines. What really needs to be focused on is the required parameters because the non-required ones are not as important. If a accurate system can not be made for the parameter and its optional then it should be dropped.

[Akyhne]

Sitemaps is a great idea for large forums with many custom pages added. But I only saw a few of them ever.

Mod material? Yeah.
Official mod? Pointless.

Personally, I've only clicked a sitemap on a homepage a few times, and they didn't give me the info I wanted and didn't bring me where I wanted anyway.
Besides, SMF already has a sitemap build in. It's called the top menu and you can add links there as you whish (you never thought of that, huh).

[Antechinus]

I'm inclined to agree. See Aky, I do agree with you sometimes.

I have the existing sitemap mod installed, but honestly I don't think it's much use. I may not keep it when I upgrade the site. Better to just have a custom FAQ page and a few handy links.

[Akyhne]

I'm inclined to agree. See Aky, I do agree with you sometimes.

[Antechinus]

Don't worry. It wont last.

[Akyhne]

Don't worry. It wont last.

What does that mean? That you will disagree with me tomorrow about the sitemap mod?

[Antechinus]

I'll disagree with you about anything, just to keep in practice.

[Suki]

A custom oop API that can handle several formats such as json, yaml or any other fancy data serialization format can be used to add a compatible format for a sitemap, just a matter of adding a child class file and its corresponding template file of course.