SEO and Search Engine Submission
Google, Yahoo and Bing all prefer using sitemap.xml as a means of helping them index your site. Xmap works particularly well; note that the installation package includes both a component and a plug-in.
If you are using a component like SH404sef, you’ll want to disable it relative to Xmap.
You can submit your sitemap.xml file (link available through the component) using Google, Yahoo and Bing. You should create accounts on each for your client and make note of userids and passwords.
In order to submit and manage your site with Google, you’ll need to create a free account.
After you create your account, you’ll also need to verify that you are the owner of the site. Verification can be provided by either adding a meta tag to the pages of your site, or by uploading a Google-provided HTML file. Because the latter approach is template-independent, you should choose to Upload an HTML file.
Over time, Google will provide information on searches that led users to your Web site, third party links to your site, keywords relevant to your site, and any errors that Google encountered while crawling your site. In addition, you have the option of including a link to the sitemap.xml file created by Xmap.
Yahoo!
Submitting your site to Yahoo works in much the same way as Google. You’ll need to create a free account, submit your site for verification and use an uploaded HTML file to verify ownership. It will take up to 24 hours for Yahoo to verify the account.
Bing.com
Once you submit your site to Bing, you’ll account for the vast majority of search engine traffic. The process for submitting your site to Bing works exactly the same as the previous two, but results are live.