[rethomas07]

Okay so ever since I upgraded to 1.0 my site has been doing really well. I used URL method 1 with RC2 for a few months and things were fine. Then I planned on installing 1.0, optimizing my site for search engines using URL method 2. Ever since I upgraded my search engine traffic dropped significantly. I tried installing the XML sitemaps module and all of a sudden my RSS feeds broke (and the xml sitemaps don't work). So now I have a site with almost 200 stories, a broken RSS feed, a non-functioning XML module, and I am getting so frustrated I am about to whip my server clean and throw away the last 3 months of hard work.

My URL method 2: http://www.burninginfo.com/story/undercover-cops-arrest-an-undercover-cop-posing-as-a-dealer

My RSS feeds: http://www.burninginfo.com/rss

Is there an easy way to hack the URL method and fix my RSS feeds and easily create XML sitemaps without breaking my website?

[Yankidank]

XML module is known to break Pligg sites. We've warned users across multiple threads that the author wrote buggy code that somehow made things worse with 1.0.0 version sites. Unless you found a new XML module that was written from scratch I suggest that you disable and remove it from your server.

I'm no pro concerning SEO, but I wouldn't think that the switch to URL Method would have a negative impact since it forwards old urls to the new ones.

[rethomas07]

I have about 900 backlinks but I know some of them are already broken because of the switch from method 1 to method 2. Maybe you guys could set up a donation in a new thread for users to build funds for an outside SEO pro to create a modification tutorial to make pligg a lot more search engine friendly?

[steliyan_georgiev]

@rethomas07,

Hi I checked your rss feed and saw the php warning about 'Headers already sent'.
This usually happens because some output (text) is already sent by the server which automatically causes sending out the http headers (if ob caching is not started but that is another topic) and then your sript tries to send the correct http headers.

In your case this output seems to be "<br />", which you can spot is the first think in your rss feed response.
So one way trying to fix this issue yourself is to try looking for this part of your code which generates the "<br />" output. (Note the space between br and / - this could help you find it)

About the URL method 2 in general it shouldn't cause problems with your existing backlinks, because your existing "regular" links are supposed to work too in addition with the URL method 2 URLs. If there are problems though, this probably means wrong configuration in the .htaccess file.

Wish you luck,
Steliyan

[steliyan_georgiev]

@rethomas07,

For the RSS problem you can also search for a header function, which sends the headers prematurely or any trialing spaces or new lines before the php opening tags (<?php) in the files that handle the rss output.

[Yankidank]

Could you give me examples of backlinks that are no longer working?

[rethomas07]

Well I was just thinking if I ended up doing a clean re-install that most of my issues would be solved. However, the initial xml sitemap module setup broke 1.0 (rss feeds), and then i tried a clean re-install and at first the rss feeds worked. I never re-installed the xml module, but the feeds broke a few days later. I did not install any other modules so I have no idea what could be causing this.

@steliyan_georgiev
thank you for this! I will look into the <br> code when i get some time to code. As far as formating the Rss page, why is it just text? I mean I will be fine if the rss feeds work properly but I would like to modify the look of it at least a little bit. I have never seen any kind seen anything for rss feeds in my css. But yea, thanks for your help!

For the xml sitemaps, what way do you guys use? I use some third party xml sitemap generator but it only logs 500 links total. Any xml solutions in the works?

I use Alexa.com to measure my progress (as well as awstats, analytics and quantcast). I noticed that in the past few months my search % on Alexa has dropped drastically. I'm talking 0% here. Could it have to do with xml sitemap errors or broken rss feeds? I publish a few articles a day and I don't expect all my traffic to come from search engines, but anything more than 0% would be nice! (analytics says I get about 2% of my traffic from search engines)

[steliyan_georgiev]

For sitemaps, I just submit my RSS for the upcoming stories as a sitemap in the google webmaster tools. (Yes, google accepts plain RSS for a sitemap). I am not much of a SEO, but I think it is not a bad approach. You can read more on my experience with this here.

[rethomas07]

header('Content-type: text/xml; charset=utf-8', true);

This code was the problem!