[Approved] Site map for Google

[DeltaBee]

Hi,

Has this thing got a site map? As in an XML one that can be submitted to google et al?

[Lawrence]

HostBillForums.com does not have a sitemap. I'm actually trying to keep it as user friendly as possible without adding unnecessary features. Would a sitemap be helpful towards the community?

[Patrick]

I believe SMF is pretty well coded as it's open source and it has good SEO.  I don't think Google will have too much of an issue with the site as is.  Unless your suggestion has more to it then my basic way of thinking

[Lawrence]

SMF in itself has great SEO. It's the most friendly forum software I've ever seen! Granted a sitemap would benefit the website's crawlability, I don't think it's beneficial to the community unless otherwise someone referenced the sitemap themselves.

[DeltaBee]

No it was just an SEO thing... Sitemap just speeds up the time it takes new content to get into the index.

As you were

[Patrick]

No it was just an SEO thing... Sitemap just speeds up the time it takes new content to get into the index.

As you were

lol, i think SMF may have it's own sitemap xml but i'm not sure, have you tried accessing it?  From what i've read the SEO is pretty good with this board either way but nothing wrong with your suggestion

[Lawrence]

SEO isn't priority, not unless Kris decides these forums are better for the community. Unless Kris says These forums should replace the current ones, I don't want these forums ranking higher than the current HostBill forums in SEO. They probably will since the content is open to the public, but that'll be through natural SEO and not on-site SEO.

[Lawrence]

I'll lock this topic tomorrow to allow further responses and mark this as not approved. I love the suggestion, but again these aren't the official HostBill forums so no need to do any SEO.

[tallship]

HostBillForums.com does not have a sitemap. I'm actually trying to keep it as user friendly as possible without adding unnecessary features. Would a sitemap be helpful towards the community?

I think so. We certainly want search engines to index content here and rank, so toward that end that's a good start. When somone googles a problem, and there's an answer here, it would be nice if google directed them to that thread


Kindest regards,

[Patrick]

I've been thinking about it a lot, and i personally don't see an issue if these forums were to rank higher then hostbills forums.  Now if hostbill's forums were open to the public i can see that being a possibly issue and cause confusion but they aren't, so this is the first line of resource for many users if we can grow this site a little bit. 

A little SEO never hurts

[Lawrence]

I think so. We certainly want search engines to index content here and rank, so toward that end that's a good start. When somone googles a problem, and there's an answer here, it would be nice if google directed them to that thread


Kindest regards,

Valid points, people do need answers and Google is often the best place to get them. (Through the power of proper indexing)

I'm going to hold off for a day or two, but I'll probably implement an XML sitemap for the forums.

I'm editing the subject of your post to [Approved Pending] just to keep it organized. Hope you don't mind!

[tallship]

SEO isn't priority, not unless Kris decides these forums are better for the community. Unless Kris says These forums should replace the current ones,

Slightly off topic but I need to speak my mind on this point. I am opposed to him shovelling off and shirking his responsibility onto us here. He charges money for his software, he charges money for his support, and he has a fake community support forum he pretends to make available for HostBill users and his staff to address support and (yes, official) bug issues.

I was actually directed by him personally, in a ticket, to submit bug reports to the kbkp forums bug report section. So that makes it an official avenue for bug reporting by registered users.

Regardless about how I feel about the man, his business practices on his own property, or his attitudes towards his users, I feel it would be morally wrong to allow him to say that we are his official support forums here. I have consistently been, for lack of a better term, a Slackware ambassador since 1993, and Yes, the LQ forums are unnoficially the official support forums for Slackware, and although there is in fact no *official* Slackware support forum, When asked on several occasions Patrick makes it clear that although the LQ forums are where people (Including the Slackware Team) is waiting to provide support for users, there is no *official* support list or forum for Slackware support.

If Kris wants to not support his users, that is indeed his prerogative, but for him to put the burden officially on this community to shoulder the responsibility of what is his alone, No sirs, I object.

I love helping people, and if all of the HostBill support issues came here of their own volition, I don't have a problem with that, but this forum was started because he failed as a software publisher to support his products, and we as users of that product called for a community where we can support each other irrespective of his failure to live up to his ethical and legal obligations.

If he participates here, so be it. I wouldn't mind a bit. If he thinks he can take a grass roots community and shirk his responsibilities off onto them (us), he is sorely mistaken.

On another note, I originally had some misgivings and reservations about the "Pre-Sales" questions here. I still don't know if it is relevant or appropriate, given the fact that people can use the general discussion section and ask questions there. But considering the way you craftily worded the purpose of that sub-forum, I thought, "Well, I suppose that's okay. It's just an honest forum for potential users where they can get the straight dope, good or bad, from real people who are actually using HostBill."

Anyway, FWIW. These are our community forums, not his. He needs to mind his own house of cards that has come very near to crashing down on him. Whether he does so or not, is not so much our concern here as a community - as registered users over at kbkp it is our concern, but here we have a chance to have something greater.

If he is permitted to claim this is the support forum for HostBill, we're going to get the fallout from the stigma surrounding what he has allowed in his house. I urge everyone to not allow this to happen - it will marginalize and cripple us.

Thanks for your consideration of this very important distinction between what is *HIS*, and what is *OURS*.

Kindest regards,

[Lawrence]

Okay I have 2 versions of a sitemap up.

HTML Version - XML Version

Let me know what you think. I've already submitted it to Google Webmasters, but not the other search engines. If anyone wants to volunteer to submit it, feel free to do so.

[Lawrence]

Fixed a minor error, forgot to include topics in the sitemap. Let me know if both versions look good to anyone, and again feel free to submit the sitemap to other search engines.