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Archive for January, 2008

Jan
31

How to Add a Dynamic Sitemap to Your Site

RochelleHow To..., Strategies

April 23, 2008 Edit: This mod is for Build A Niche Store (BANS) sites that are v1 or v2 only. BANS v3 includes a dynamic sitemap so there is no need to add this mod to v3+ sites.

You can help Google index your site by submitting a sitemap to them. The sitemap below is a dynamic sitemap, which means it automatically updates whenever you add a new store or content page. You probably already know that sitemaps are beneficial but if your sitemap isn’t dynamic then you have to update it whenever you add a new page to your site. And chances are good that you either won’t want to take the time to do this with every new page or you will forget.

This dynamic sitemap, created by BANS member WebMogul, is an excellent mod that will automatically update when you create new pages. Once you add the mod there is nothing more you need to do to have an up-to-date sitemap that you can submit to Google.

This sitemap is strictly for search engines and is not meant to be viewed by people. You can also add Mark’s sitemap, which is meant for people. It is ok to have both this dynamic sitemap and Mark’s sitemap on your sites together.

You can view WebMogul’s instructions and download the needed files here.

 

My instructions to add a dynamic sitemap to your site:
Step One
  Go to WebMogul’s web site and download the files needed for this mod.
Step Two
  Upload the sitemap.php file to your site’s root folder (click here to read my opinion of the best FTP client). You will upload it to where your site’s index.php page is located.
Step Three
  Go to the .htaccess file (click here if you don’t know how to do this).
   
  Save a copy of the original code (click here for instructions on how to do this).
   
  Copy and paste the contents of htaccess-changes.txt BELOW the RewriteRule .* - [L] tag.
   
  Save changes and view site for errors
Step Four
  Verify that the dynamic sitemap works by viewing the URL where the sitemap is located. It will be something like http://www.YourSiteURL.com/sitemap.xml.
   
  Potential Problem : When I first did this mod I found that my sitemap wasn’t accurate. There were many pages missing. It turned out I had previously created and uploaded a sitemap.xml page and this older sitemap was overwriting the one I was now trying to create.
   
  I resolved this by deleting the sitemap.php from my server and starting from scratch at step two above.
   
  You can tell you are looking at WebMogul’s dynamic sitemap if the top of your dynamic sitemap says:
  <!– Generated by WebMogul’s BANS sitemap generator: http://mogul.webmogulenterprises.com –>
   
  The color and alignment of this message may vary but not the wording.
Step Five
  Log in to your Google Webmaster Tools account. (If you don’t yet have one you can get one at Google Webmaster Tools.) Submit your dynamic sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools.
Step Six
  Add the dynamic sitemap to your robots.txt (click here if you don’t yet have a robots.txt). Instructions to add your dynamic sitemap to your robots.txt are located here.
done

Rochelle

comments (17)
Jan
31

How to Add your Dynamic Sitemap to your site’s robots.txt

RochelleHow To..., Strategies

You can add your dynamic sitemap’s location to your robots.txt. The reason to do this is so you can tell the search engine/spider where your sitemap.xml file is. This may help index your site quicker.

This idea comes from forum member WebMogul. You can see his instructions here.

 

My instructions to add your dynamic sitemap to your robots.txt:
Step One
  Go to your robots.txt file (click here if you don’t know how to do this or see How To Add a robots.txt if you don’t yet have a robots.txt).
Step Two
 

Copy contents of add-dynamic-sitemap-to-robots-txt.txt and paste contents ABOVE all other code in your robots.txt file. (Click here to see an example of what a robots.txt will look like with the dynamic sitemap added.)
   
  Change the following bits of code before you save your changes:
 
  • Change "sitemap: http://YourSiteURL.com/sitemap.xml" to the URL of the your site’s sitemap.xml.
   
  Save changes.
done

Simple as that!

Rochelle

comments (6)
Jan
30

How to Add A Robots.txt to your site

RochelleHow To..., Strategies

The brief (and by no means complete) definition of a robots.txt is that it is a document that tells search engine spiders what pages in your site to index and which to ignore. Many people choose to prevent their BANS folders and files from being indexed for several reasons. If they do get indexed then these folders and files could be included in search engine results. These are not pages you want potential customers going to.

Be aware that creating a robots.txt does not guarantee that search engine spiders will follow your requests. Most will but a few will do what they want regardless of what you enter in robots.txt.

 

My instructions to add a basic robots.txt to your site:
Step One
  Open Notepad or equivalent (do NOT use a word document program as these add hidden characters that can do funny things).
   
  Copy the contents of robots-txt.txt to your Notepad.
   
  Note: If you don’t want certain folders or pages to be indexed you can disallow them by following the above format:
 
  • Disallow: /name of folder to disallow/
  • or
  • Disallow: /NameOfPageToDisallow.htm
   
  Make sure you don’t leave a blank Disallow action:
 
  • Disallow:
  Including a blank Disallow: will prevent your entire site from being indexed. That would be bad!
Step Two
  Save your document as robots.txt.
Step Three
  Upload your robots.txt to your site’s root file (where you site’s index.php is located). (Click here to read my opinion of the best FTP client.)
done

Rochelle

comments (10)
Jan
30

How to Correct the Size of Auction Images on your Site

RochelleHow To...

The largest width eBay allows for gallery images (the images you see next to most auction results) is 96px. In versions 1x and 2x of BANS image width is 80px (v3x corrects this so you do not need to add this mod to v3 sites). This means many image widths are cutoff, making them look strange and incomplete:

Image of how auction images that are too narrow look

Fortunately, there is an easy way to fix this. I don’t know who came up with this but will gladly give credit if you let me know who you are.

 

My instructions to correct the size of auction result images:
Step One
  Open index.php. (Click here if you don’t know how to do this.).
   
  Save a copy of the original code (click here for instructions on how to do this).
   
  Search for all 80px Replace with 96px.
   
  Save changes and view site for errors.
Step Two
  Open FrontControl.php. (Click here if you don’t know how to do this.)
   
  Save a copy of the original code (click here for instructions on how to do this).
   
  Search for all 80px Replace with 96px.
   
  Save changes and view site for errors.
.

Your images will now look as the sellers intend them to look and your site will look that much more professional:

Image of how corrected auction images look

Rochelle

comments (1)
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