Google upgraded the Preferred Sources button: instead of a link to an external preferences page, there is now an interactive button you can embed on your site.
The Preferred Sources button lets a reader mark a site they want to see more often in Google. The new button opens a Google window over the article, handles sign-in and confirmation, and then closes. The visitor stays on the site.
That is the big benefit over the old button, which was basically a regular link to Google’s preferences page and pushed users away from your site:
<a href="https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=example.com">
Add as Preferred Source
</a>It worked, but it was half power. The new button keeps the audience inside the site experience, and this is what it looks like:
Where a preferred source can get priority in Google
Preferred Sources is relevant first in three places:
- Top Stories
- AI Overviews
- AI Mode
When a user chooses a site as a preferred source, content from that site can appear more often in Top Stories. In AI Mode and AI Overviews, it can get a preferred source label for that user.
That does not mean the button gives a site automatic priority in Discover or Google News. Those are different channels. But it does sit in the same direction: Google is giving users more control over what they see.
With Preferred Sources, the publisher has a clear action to ask from the reader: add this site as a preferred source.
How to implement the new Preferred Sources button
The standard implementation
Take this code snippet, with Google’s script, and put it in the HTML:
<script async src="https://news.google.com/swg/js/v1/publisher.js"></script>
<div google-add-preferred-source-btn data-theme="dark" data-lang="en"></div>The library scans the page, finds elements with google-add-preferred-source-btn, and replaces them with the button. data-theme controls the colors. data-lang controls the language.
On WordPress sites, I assume plugins will either already support this or will get there fast. For anyone who does not want to touch code, that will probably be the simplest path.
The custom implementation
On this site I chose a custom implementation for two reasons: I wanted different button text, and I did not want Google’s JS file to load on every page view, only when it is actually needed.
Instead of letting Google render the button itself, you can design a button on your site and trigger the same flow through Google’s library:
import { preferredSource } from
'https://news.google.com/swg/js/v1/publisher.mjs';
preferredSource.init({
theme: 'dark',
lang: 'en',
});
document.querySelector('#myButton').onclick = () => {
preferredSource.addPreferredSource();
};Where to place the Preferred Sources button
I would not hide it in the footer.
On content and news sites, there are a few natural spots:
- At the top of an article, near the author and date
- At the end of an article, near sharing and newsletter signup
- On section pages
- On the homepage, near the main content area
- In returning-reader campaigns, such as a newsletter or a thank-you page after signup, where the old regular link still works
A few thoughts on the Preferred Sources button
Preferred Sources is not presented as a general ranking signal. Still, the timing is hard to ignore. Preferred Sources, free-form Discover personalization, and personalized news briefings in the Google News app arrived in the same product window. This looks like another step toward every user getting a slightly different version of Google.
I tend to think explicit choices like this will become more important. Maybe not as a classic ranking signal. Maybe as a trust signal. Maybe only inside the personalization layer. But if users keep telling Google they want a specific source, I find it hard to believe Google will ignore that forever.
If I run a content or news site, I am not waiting to see whether this becomes an official signal. I am implementing it, measuring it, and teaching readers to choose the site as a preferred source. It is a small action, but it sits exactly in the direction Google is moving: less one web for everyone, more personalized experience for each user.
If I had one wishlist item, it would be for Google to report follower counts, at least through Search Console. Maybe someday. I would not hold my breath.
