This tutorial will show you how to exclude some links from the sitemap feature (sitemap.xml). It will also show you how to change the priority level, and change frequency settings.

By default at least with the current Dolphin version 7.1.x you can't change any of these in the Administration Panel Dashboard. Your only option is to enable or disable the sitemap feature. So it is either all or none. There is no way to exclude or change any of these in the Administration Panel. Hopefully in the future Boonex will include the ability to change these in a much easier way.

Priority levels and Change Frequency settings are pre-set to what I assume Boonex prefers or thinks is a good number.

For example Profiles and Profile Info pages are set to a Priority level of 0.8, and Change Frequency is set to daily. Pages are set to Priority level 0.8, and Change Frequency weekly. Many of the others such as Blog Posts, Files, Albums, Forums, Videos, Photos, Articles, etc. have a Priority level of 0.8, and Change Frequency of auto.

You can find all of this in the database table "sys_objects_site_maps".

The easiest way to edit or change these settings is to use phpMyAdmin available in most hosting control panels.

Open phpMyAdmin.





Find and select your Dolphin 7.1.x database on the left side of the page in phpMyAdmin.





Scroll down until you find the table "sys_objects_site_maps". Then, click on the "Browse" link.





You will find all the things that will be included in the Dolphin 7.1.x sitemap (sitemap.xml)

Now if you go to your sitemap.xml page: http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml you will see a sitemap index page, which looks like this:





If you open each of the links listed here on the sitemap index you will find all of your Dolphin links, the Priority level, and Change Frequency.

For example if I open the first one:
http://127.0.0.1/dolphin/cache_public/sitemap_system_0.xml

I will see this:





As you can see now you will find pages like about_us.php, advice.php, contact.php, faq.php, forgot.php, etc.

You can also see the changefreq is weekly and the priority is 0.6.

If I wanted to change the Priority or Change Frequency in the sitemap_system I just find the table and make the necessary changes.

I would click on "Edit/Pencil Icon" link for system _sys_sitemap_system





Now just change the priority or changefreq to your desired level. For example, I will change the priority from 0.6 to 0.8 and the changefreq from weekly to daily. Then, you click the "Go" button to save the changes.





Note:
After you save the changes, you have to wait until 2:00 AM server time for the sitemap to be updated when the cron processes this. So don't expect the changes to happen instantly. You can force an early sitemap cron update, but it is easier to just wait and let it happen naturally at 2:00 AM server time.


You can see after the cron has run the changefrequency and priority levels have been updated.





Now if I wanted to remove the System Pages completely from the database I can do that as well.

If you look at the sitemap index page again (yoursite.com/sitemap.xml) remember we saw this:

<img http://www.dialme.com/guides/dolphin-7-1/sitemap-feature/sitemap-index.png>



You can also find this list in your Dolphin 7.1 Administration Panel Dashboard by going to:
Tools
-Sitemap

In the center of the page near the bottom you will find these listed under:
"The following content pages are included in sitemap"





To disable or remove this one from the sitemap index completely I would click on "Edit/Pencil Icon" link for system _sys_sitemap_system again.





This time I need to change the "active" entry from 1 to 0 and click the "Go" button to save the changes.





Note:
Again, after you save the changes you have to wait until 2:00 AM server time for the sitemap to be updated when the cron processes it. So don't expect the changes to happen instantly. Once the cron runs at 2:00 AM it will then disappear from the sitemap index (yoursite.com/sitemap.xml) page.


As you can see after the cron has run at 2:00 AM server time it is now gone (not included) in the sitemap index (sitemap.xml).





It will also disappear from the Dolphin 7.1 Administration Sitemap area as well.





Tips and Additional information
It is always a wise idea to clear the Dolphin cache after manually making database changes.

I used system/sitemap_system_0.xml in this example since it was the first entry. It contains various Dolphin pages. You probably wouldn't want to disable this one in particular, but you can use this same procedure to change the frequency, priority, or to disable other sitemap entries.

For example if you have a Dolphin website where membership is required (registered/logged in member) to view parts of your site such as profiles/profile info pages you might disable/deactivate these. If someone needs to be logged in to view them that means Google and other search engines can't view them either. It wouldn't make sense to submit a sitemap to Google with links to profiles and profile info pages if it can't access those pages. What Google will see is access denied for all of them. So if this happens to be the case with your website you might want to disable these from the Dolphin sitemap feature. The same would be true with the other features/areas.

You can also create a free Bing Webmaster Account and submit your Dolphin sitemap here:
http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster


Note:
You should also make a database backup prior to making any changes with phpMyAdmin just in case.