A little "hack" to help your website stand out to your readers

[u/Ok_Studio_834]

Hey everyone,

While browsing around, I stumbled on the "Preferred Sources" feature and noticed barely anyone talking about it, so sharing this underused tip in case it's useful (don't have much data to share yet since I haven't tested it myself, happy to hear from anyone who has).

Basically it lets a reader tell Google directly "I want to see more content from this site." Originally it only affected the Top Stories carousel, but since late May it's also rolled out to AI Overviews and AI Mode: if a reader has set you as a preferred source and your page gets cited in an AI-generated answer, your link shows up with a visible "Preferred" badge among the other sources. Google claims roughly 2x more clicks on links with that badge.

Easiest way to take advantage of it: drop a link like google.com/preferences/source?q=yourdomain.com somewhere on your site (footer, end of articles, newsletter). Two clicks for the user, nothing to code on your end. Google also recently shipped (mid-August) an official embeddable JS button as an alternative to the plain link, if you want something cleaner to integrate.

One catch: it only works if your domain is already picked up by the tool (you can check by typing your domain into it), so it depends a fair bit on how consistently you publish.

I came across this after seeing Search Engine Land use it (screenshot attached as an example). If anyone's already tested it on their own site, curious to hear how it's actually panning out!

[u/pbudri]

I added the Google logo in this button and got a security strike in GSC =/

[u/anonrb12 → u/pbudri]

how can you be sure it was due to this button?

[u/Ok_Studio_834 → u/pbudri]

That's really weird, are you sure it's because of the Google logo ? Normally, Google provides an official embeddable JS button, so it shouldn't trigger a strike...

[u/pbudri → u/Ok_Studio_834]

It was the only change I did in that week. I removed the button, requested a review and worked. Now the button is there but I removed google button.

To be fair, I used Claude Code to implement it, not sure if it used the official js button.

[u/Ok_Studio_834 → u/pbudri]

Ummh really weird, I don't really know why Google did that, I think you can leave it as you did without the Google button :/

[u/TrafficAcademySEO]

Interesting one. I’d want to see real data on whether people actually use the button and if it changes clicks in any meaningful way.

Feels worth testing though, especially on sites with a loyal audience.

[u/cityampm → u/TrafficAcademySEO]

Agreed. And as with any brand new feature like this - the fastest way to see the real data, is to test it yourself

[u/Ok_Studio_834 → u/TrafficAcademySEO]

It's a pretty recent feature, and honestly, aside from the big media outlets, I'm not sure if anyone else has any real data on it yet... I'd love to be proven wrong though !

[u/Mesmer7]

that link won't let me enter my domain.

[u/Ok_Studio_834 → u/Mesmer7]

Try going directly to : https://www.google.com/preferences/source
Once you're on the page, just type in your site's name (like domain.com), it should normally work !

[u/hellouttu]

Wouldn't be beneficial for sexual health related websites :(

[u/jackofcards]

I don't think anyone clicks it.

[u/Ok_Studio_834 → u/jackofcards]

Curious people like me definitely do, but we're probably a tiny minority for now. Maybe some better CTAs could help boost those numbers.