Maxim

I've created a simple installation script that adds a comprehensive XML sitemap to your Waterhole. This helps search engines discover and index all your content.

Features

• Multiple sitemap endpoints organized by content type
• API-style routing (/sitemap, /sitemap/posts, etc.)
• Automatic content discovery for channels, posts, pages, and users
• Proper XML formatting with timestamps, change frequency, and priority
• Error handling - won't crash if a model is missing
• robots.txt integration with sitemap reference

Installation

Download the attached install-sitemap.sh file, upload it to your Waterhole root directory, and run:

chmod +x install-sitemap.sh
./install-sitemap.sh

That's it! The script will automatically create all necessary files and routes.

Available Endpoints

After installation, you'll have these endpoints:

• /sitemap - Complete sitemap with all content types
• /sitemap/posts - Posts only (limited to 1000 most recent)
• /sitemap/channels - Channels only
• /sitemap/pages - Static pages only
• /sitemap/users - User profiles (limited to 500)

SEO Setup

1. Update your domain in public/robots.txt
2. Test your sitemap: curl https://your-domain.com/sitemap
3. Submit to Google Search Console
4. Submit to Bing Webmaster Tools

Code Structure

The implementation creates:

• app/Http/Controllers/SitemapController.php - Main controller with 5 methods
• Routes in routes/web.php using prefix grouping
• public/robots.txt with sitemap reference

Each URL includes:

• <loc> - Full URL
• <lastmod> - Last modification timestamp
• <changefreq> - Update frequency hint
• <priority> - Relative importance (0.0-1.0)

Why Multiple Endpoints?

For large forums, splitting the sitemap by content type:

• Makes it easier to debug specific content issues
• Allows selective reindexing in search consoles
• Keeps individual sitemaps under the 50k URL limit
• Improves crawl efficiency

Customization

You can adjust limits in the controller:

• Posts: currently limit(1000)
• Users: currently limit(500)
• Channels and Pages: no limit (usually small)

Notes

• No .xml extension needed - XML content type is set via headers
• Clean URLs follow the same pattern as the Waterhole API
• Error handling prevents crashes if models aren't available
• Works with unlicensed Waterhole installations

Hope this helps improve your forum's SEO!

Attachment: install-sitemap.sh