Best method of hunting magical sites?

[Carcaroth]

I've recently gotten hooked on this game, and read through the forum guides I could find and the strategywiki. I've managed to win a few games across the ages in SP, but it always seems like my gem income is low. It's especially telling in my current game as EA Abysia, where I've got maybe 20% of the map (Aran) and found no sites whatsoever, possibly because I've been busy fending off Sauromatia and Yomi. Should I be expanding more slowly so that a battlemage can search each site, or try researching up and setting a low level mage to burn gems on the spells? Any help getting my magic up and running would be appreciated.