DragonByte SEO v1.0.0 Beta 7 (Open Beta / vB3) Released

Fillip H.

Staff member
Owner
Developer
Customer
Hey all,

DragonByte SEO goes Open Beta with the release of DragonByte SEO v1.0.0 Beta 7! Not only that, but DragonByte SEO is now compatible with vBulletin 3.8.x! The vB 3.8 compatibility hasn't been as extensively tested as the vB 4 compatibility, being limited to my development server, but it's running on the same code as the vB4 version so if it works on vB4 it should also work on vB3. Your feedback will be most appreciated.

We've now implemented all the features from vBSEO we intend to implement, and we're confident enough in the stability of the software to open it up to a larger testing audience. That being said, this is still a Beta version. If you're not comfortable with testing pre-release software, we suggest waiting for the Gold version.

For those of you just joining us, DragonByte SEO is the definitive "set-it-and-forget-it" SEO solution for your vBulletin 3.8 or 4.x forum. With powerful URL rewrite rules, your forum's content will not only be easier for search engines to crawl via the elimination of duplicate content, your content URLs will be more descriptive for your users.

If you are a current vBSEO user who wish to upgrade to DragonByte SEO, we have a powerful importer that can carry over all your settings for the DBSEO equivalent features, ensuring the transition is completely painless.

DragonByte SEO is made with the future in mind, and the first step of our commitment to keeping this SEO solution up to date is the support for Google Analytics' new "Universal Analytics" format. If you've switched your profile over, DBSEO will let you use Google's new recommended tracking code by simply turning on a setting.

The Sitemap features in DBSEO make vast improvements to both the vB4 Sitemap Builder and any other sitemap generators, by combining the power of the vB4 Sitemap Builder with multiple new content types that ensures the sitemap covers more of your site.

If you're looking for an easy-to-use solution to boost your search engine performance or gain control over how the URLs on your site should be structured, look no further than DragonByte SEO.

For those of you who have followed the evolution of DragonByte SEO, Beta 7 is not merely a token release. This version finishes up the missing parts of the Sitemap feature by adding a "hit log" that tracks the spiders that request your sitemap files, and stores them in a log you can browse / search via the DBSEO Control Panel.

Additionally, spiders are now tracked & logged when browsing your forum as well - there's a separate log that you can browse / search in the DBSEO Control Panel.

Spider detection has also vastly improved, by implementing a separate spider identification file with over 600 spiders tracked.


I want to thank the beta testers as well for their help getting bugs identified and fixed. The testers who've contributed to this and previous Beta releases are: cruisin, janslu, CoZmicShReddeR, Steris56



New Features Added

Sitemap Hit Log
  • Tracks all spiders accessing your Sitemaps
  • Stores time, spider identification, full user agent, ip address and sitemap file accessed
  • Browseable log with date range options
  • Automatic prune after X days (default: 90)

Spider Hit Log
  • Tracks all spiders accessing your forum
  • Stores a daily log of what scripts the spiders accessed, and how many times they accessed that script
  • Browseable log with date range options
  • Automatic prune after X days (default: 90)

Cache Purging
  • Automatically purges the cache when you save settings
  • Quick link to manually purge the cache if need be

Changes To Existing Functionality:
  • Spider detection now uses a separate file from the vBulletin one, with over 600 spiders
  • Improved initialisation detection in order to ensure maximum compatibility with custom vB-powered pages

Bug Fixes And Issue Fixes:
  • Multiple Sitemap phrases still referenced the vB4 Sitemap functionality
  • Spiders should now be able to crawl DBSEO sitemaps successfully
  • CMS Entry URLs should now correctly generate
  • CMS Section URLs should now correctly generate
  • Member List should no longer generates a duplicate canonical URL
  • Forum Display canonical URLs should now be generated correctly if they are rewritten
  • Forum Display should now correctly update its meta keywords and meta description
  • Compatibility issues with Forum Only versions of vB4 have been corrected


Below is the complete feature list, including major features.


Major Features

vBSEO Importer: DragonByte SEO is compatible with vBSEO rewrite rules, and can import your rule set from the latest version of vBSEO seamlessly.

PHP 5.4 Support: By creating DragonByte SEO on PHP 5.4, we've been able to ensure compatibility with this PHP version in the event you or your host decides to upgrade in order to continue to receive bugfix and security updates.

Google Analytics Integration: You can easily integrate Google Analytics with your forum by simply entering your account ID, and choose the level of detail you want to track.

Dynamic Meta Tags: Meta Keywords and Descriptions can become content-aware on certain pages like blogs and threads, increasing the relevance of these pages.

External Link Handling: You can choose to add "nofollow" to all external links, preventing search engine spiders from leaving your site. With the ability to fine-tune where this applies, white- and blacklist support as well as optional anonymisation techniques, you are in complete control over your external references.

Powerful URL Rewrites: Almost every URL found in vBulletin can be rewritten via powerful rewrite rules, enabling you to customise your rule set to perfection. The default rewrite URL settings match that of DragonByte-Tech!


Complete Feature List

vBulletin Options
  • Display Version Number
  • Branding Free Key
  • Disable Hivelocity Link (Lite only)
  • (Optional) Conntrol Panel Password
  • Whether the password replaces or augments usergroup settings

Usergroup Permissions
  • Can Administer DragonByte SEO

Sitemap Generator
  • Based on the default vB4 sitemap builder
  • Submits to more search engines than vBSEO sitemap builder & vB4 sitemap builder
  • Powerful error handling
  • Works with the "Global Ignore" system
  • Integrates with the "Admin Message" system to display errors if needed
  • Can be re-built manually via the DBSEO CP

Sitemap Settings - General
  • Enable Automatic Sitemap Generation
  • Automatic Sitemap Generation Frequency (Days)
  • Automatic Sitemap Search Engine Submission
  • Sitemap File Path
  • URLs Per Page
  • Email Notifications

Sitemap Settings - Page Settings
  • Excluded Forums
  • Smart Show Thread Update Frequency
  • Smart Priority
  • Custom Priority
  • Include Show Post
  • Show Post Update Frequency
  • Show Post Priority Range
  • Include Member Profiles
  • Member Profile Update Frequency
  • Member Profile Priority Range
  • Include Show Thread
  • Show Thread Update Frequency
  • Show Thread Priority Range
  • Include Forum Display
  • Forum Display Update Frequency
  • Forum Display Priority Range
  • Include Poll Results
  • Poll Results Update Frequency
  • Poll Results Priority Range
  • Include Blog
  • Blog Update Frequency
  • Blog Priority Range
  • Include Blog Tag
  • Blog Tag Update Frequency
  • Blog Tag Priority Range
  • Include Member Profile Album
  • Member Profile Album Update Frequency
  • Member Profile Album Priority Range
  • Include Social Group
  • Social Group Update Frequency
  • Social Group Priority Range
  • Include Social Group Discussion
  • Social Group Discussion Update Frequency
  • Social Group Discussion Priority Range
  • Include Tags
  • Tags Update Frequency
  • Tags Priority Range
  • Include CMS Content
  • CMS Content Update Frequency
  • CMS Content Priority Range
  • Include CMS Section
  • CMS Section Update Frequency
  • CMS Section Priority Range

Canonical URLs
  • Forum Home
  • Forum Display
  • Member List
  • Blog List
  • Blog Home Page
  • Tag List

Sitemap Hit Log
  • Tracks all spiders accessing your Sitemaps
  • Stores time, spider identification, full user agent, ip address and sitemap file accessed
  • Browseable log with date range options
  • Automatic prune after X days (default: 90)

Spider Hit Log
  • Tracks all spiders accessing your forum
  • Stores a daily log of what scripts the spiders accessed, and how many times they accessed that script
  • Browseable log with date range options
  • Automatic prune after X days (default: 90)

Datastore Caching
  • Reads config.php and uses the Datastore cache parameters
  • Disable Datastore caching for DBSEO only, while remaining active for the forum
  • Cache the following queries
    • Username Reverse Lookup
    • Social Group
    • Social Group Discussion
    • Social Group Message
    • Social Group Picture Comment
    • Album
    • CMS Content
    • CMS Category
    • User
    • User Picture
    • Package
    • Content Type
    • vBulletin Options
    • Forum Cache
    • Attachment
    • Blog
    • Blog Custom Block
    • Blog Category
    • Poll
    • Post
    • Thread
    • Next Thread
    • Previous Thread

Cache Purging
  • Automatically purges the cache when you save settings
  • Quick link to manually purge the cache if need be

General / Other
  • Shortcut link to the DBSEO AdminCP in the vBulletin AdminCP

General Settings
  • Turn mod on/off
  • Configure 404 handling
  • Choose between www and no-www with 301 redirects
  • Excluded pages
  • Custom Rewrite Rules
  • Custom Redirects

Link Titles
  • Choose how title is added to links
  • Enable for external URLs
  • External URL blacklist

Google Analytics
  • Turn Google Analytics integration on or off
  • Input Google Analytics account ID
  • External link tracking, to track outgoing links
  • Format to use for external links
  • User Tracking Breakdown; None, Guests & Members or Individual Usergroups (Doesn't work with "Universal Analytics")
  • Compatibility with the new "Universal Analytics" from Google Analytics (Experimental)
  • Should not be enabled unless you're sure you need it
  • Future-proof as all future profiles will be switched over to this format

Dynamic Meta Tags
  • Meta Keywords
    • Forums
    • Threads
    • Posts
    • Member Profiles
    • Blogs
  • Meta Description
    • Forums
    • Threads
    • Posts
    • Member Profiles
    • Blogs
  • Meta Description Length
  • Member Profile Meta Description

External Link Handling
  • Add "nofollow" to external URLs
  • Anonymise external urls, stops sites seeing what threads the clicks came from
  • Excluded Forums
  • Domain Whitelist
  • Domain Blacklist

Stopwords
  • Remove Stopwords: Yes, No, Only on long URLs
  • Stopword List

General URL Rewrite Settings
  • URL Part Separator: -, _ or .
  • Maximum URL Keywords
  • Filter Non-Latin Characters
  • Custom Character Filter
  • Enable UTF-8
  • Force Forum Directory Index
  • Filter Tag URLs
  • Rewrite Emails
  • Add "Canonical URL" Tag
  • "Nav Bullet" Prefix
  • Avatar Prefix
  • Attachment Prefix

Forum URLs
(All settings have a "Custom" input as well, with list of available variables)
  • Define "[forum_path]"
  • Rewrite Forum URLs
  • Forum URLs
  • Forum Pagination URLs
  • Rewrite Announcement URLs
  • Announcement URLs
  • Multiple Announcements URL
  • Rewrite Thread URLs
  • Thread URL
  • Thread Pagination URL
  • Thread Last Post URL
  • Thread New Post URL
  • Thread Go To Post URL
  • Thread Go To Post (Paged) URL
  • Previous Thread URL
  • Next Thread URL
  • Rewrite Printer-Friendly Thread URLs
  • Printer-Friendly Thread URLs
  • Printer-Friendly Thread (Paged) URLs
  • Rewrite "Show Post" URLs
  • Show Post URLs
  • Rewrite "Poll" URLs
  • Poll URLs
  • Rewrite "Member List" URLs
  • Member List URLs
  • Member List (Paged) URLs
  • Member List (Letter) URLs
  • Rewrite "Avatar" URLs
  • Avatar URL
  • Rewrite "Nav Bullet" URLs
  • "Nav Bullet" Prefix
  • Nav Bullet (Forum) URLs
  • Nav Bullet (Thread) URLs
  • Rewrite Attachment URLs
  • Attachment URLs
  • Rewrite "Attachment Alt Attribute"
  • Attachment Alt Attribute
  • Rewrite "Tag" URLs
  • Tag List URLs
  • Tag (Single) URLs
  • Tag (Single) Paged URLs

vB CMS URLs (vB4-Only)
(All settings have a "Custom" input as well, with list of available variables)
  • Rewrite CMS URLs
  • Custom CMS Domain
  • CMS Home URL
  • CMS Section URL
  • CMS Section Article List URL
  • CMS Section Article List (Paged) URL
  • CMS Category URL
  • CMS Category (Paged) URL
  • CMS Author URL
  • CMS Author (Paged) URL
  • CMS Entry URL
  • CMS Entry (Paged) URL
  • CMS Comments (Paged) URL
  • CMS Attachments URL

Blog URLs
  • Rewrite Blog URLs
  • Custom Blog Domain
  • Blogs URL
  • Blog URL
  • Blog (Paged) URL
  • Rewrite Blog Entry URLs
  • Blog Entry URL
  • Blog Entry (Paged) URL
  • Blog Comment URL
  • Next Blog Entry URL
  • Previous Blog Entry URL
  • Rewrite Blog Custom Pages
  • Blog Custom Page URL
  • Rewrite Blog Category URLs
  • Blog Global Category URL
  • Blog Global Category (Paged) URL
  • Blog Category URL
  • Blog Category (Paged) URL
  • Rewrite Blog Attachment URLs
  • Blog Attachment URL
  • Rewrite Blog Feed URLs
  • Blog Feed (User) URL
  • Blog Feed (Global) URL
  • Rewrite Blog List URLs
  • "Blogs By Day" List (User) URL
  • "Blogs By Day" List (Global) URL
  • "Blogs By Day" List (Global, Paged) URL
  • "Blogs By Month" List (User) URL
  • "Blogs By Month" List (Global) URL
  • "Blogs By Month" List (Global, Paged) URL
  • "All Blog Entries" List URL
  • "All Blog Entries" List (Paged) URL
  • "Recent Blog Entries" List URL
  • "Recent Blog Entries" List (Paged) URL
  • "Latest Blog Entries" List URL
  • "Latest Blog Entries" List (Paged) URL
  • "Best Blog Entries" List URL
  • "Best Blog Entries" List (Paged) URL
  • "Best Blogs" List URL
  • "Best Blogs" List (Paged) URL
  • "Blog Comments" List URL
  • "Blog Comments" List (Paged) URL
  • Rewrite Blog Tag URLs
  • Blog Tags Home URL
  • Blog Tag List URL
  • Blog Tag List (Paged) URL

Social Group URLs
  • Rewrite Social Group URLs
  • Social Group Home URL
  • Social Group List URL
  • Social Group List (Paged) URL
  • Social Group URL
  • Social Group (Paged) URL
  • Social Group Discussion URL
  • Social Group Discussion (Paged) URL
  • Social Group Discussion (Last Post) URL
  • Social Group Members URL
  • Social Group Members (Paged) URL
  • Social Group Pictures URL
  • Social Group Pictures (Paged) URL
  • Social Group Picture URL
  • Social Group Picture (Paged) URL
  • Social Group Picture File URL
  • Social Group Category List URL
  • Social Group Category List (Paged) URL
  • Social Group Category URL
  • Social Group Category (Paged) URL

Member Profile URLs
  • Rewrite Member Profile URLs
  • Member Profile URL
  • Visitor Messages (Paged) URL
  • Visitor Messages Conversation URL
  • Visitor Messages Conversation (Paged) URL
  • Friends List (Paged) URL
  • Rewrite Member Album URLs
  • Member Albums URL
  • Member Albums (Paged) URL
  • Album List URL
  • Album List (Paged) URL
  • Album URL
  • Album (Paged) URL
  • Album Picture URL
  • Album Picture (Paged) URL
  • Album Picture File URL

vBSEO Importer
  • Transfers equivalent settings from vBSEO
  • Ensures smooth transition from vBSEO
  • Safety precautions to ensure settings are only overwritten if you explicitly tick Yes


As always, thank you for your continued support!

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