Google Preferred Sources lets a person pick the websites they trust. Google then shows those sites more often in that person’s results, marked with a star badge. On 20 August 2026 Google shipped an official one-click button that any site can place, and that turned a quiet setting into something a marketing team can act on.
We added the button to our own site the week it came out. That taught us one thing the announcement posts skip, and it is covered below.
What is a Google preferred source?
A preferred source is a site a signed-in Google user has added to their own list at google.com/preferences/source. The choice belongs to the reader. No site can buy its way onto the list, and Google reports more than 600,000 sources selected so far.
The feature launched for Top Stories in August 2025. In May 2026 Google extended it into AI Overviews and AI Mode. The developer guide with the embeddable button followed on 20 August 2026.
Where a preferred source shows up
Once a reader adds you, three things change in their results. Your pages appear more often in their Top Stories. Your pages appear more often in their AI Overviews and AI Mode answers. And each of those appearances carries a “Preferred” star badge.
The effect is personal. A reader who never opts in sees nothing different, and your ordinary rankings do not move. That shapes who benefits: sites with a returning audience gain the most, because their readers keep searching the same topics.
How readers add you with one click
Google gives site owners three routes, from lightest to heaviest.
- A plain link.
google.com/preferences/source?q=yourdomain.comopens the picker with your site queued. It works in a footer, an email signature or a newsletter, with no code at all. - The official button. Two lines of code render Google’s own badge on your page, and the reader opts in without leaving it.
- A JavaScript SDK, for triggering the flow from a custom design.
Google also publishes the badge artwork itself, in 34 languages, so a site using the plain link can still show the official button. We use that route: the badge in our footer is Google’s file, and the link behind it loads nothing from a third party.
One wording tip. The picker asks the reader to tick a checkbox beside your name, and that step is easy to miss. The text around your button should say so.
Only regularly updated sites appear in the picker
Eligibility runs on two rules from Google’s documentation. The site must be a domain or subdomain, so a blog living at /blog on someone else’s domain cannot be preferred on its own. And sources that are not updated regularly may not be available in the picker.
That second rule has teeth. When we added the button to legencymedia.com, the picker returned “No results” for our own domain. The site was three weeks old at the time. An established software client of ours was listed the same day, logo and all. Google builds its source list from sites it already crawls as regularly updated publishers, and a young site earns its way in with publishing cadence rather than with a form.
So check the picker before you ship the button. Open the plain link for your own domain in a signed-in browser and confirm your site appears. If it does not, the fix is patience and a real publishing rhythm, and the button can wait a few weeks.
What a marketing team should do this week
- Open
google.com/preferences/source?q=yourdomain.comwhile signed in and confirm your site is listed. - If it is, place the button where a reader has just received value: the end of articles, the site footer and the newsletter.
- Tag the plain link with UTM parameters, because Google gives you no count of how many people preferred you. Clicks on the link are the nearest measure you will get.
- If your site is missing from the picker, publish on a schedule and check again monthly.
This sits inside the same discipline as answer engine optimization: the reader who already trusts you is an asset, and Preferred Sources converts that trust into standing visibility inside their AI results. The wider shift is covered in AEO vs SEO: what changes for marketing teams.
Frequently asked questions
Does Preferred Sources change my Google rankings?
No. It changes what an opted-in reader sees in their own Top Stories, AI Overviews and AI Mode. Results for everyone else are untouched.
Is it only for news websites?
No. Google’s documentation sets no publisher requirement, and established business sites appear in the picker today. The working rule is regular updates: a site that publishes steadily is listed, and a dormant one is dropped or never added.
How do I know how many readers preferred my site?
Google provides no report for it, in Search Console or anywhere else. Measure around the edge: UTM-tagged clicks on your opt-in link, branded impressions in Search Console, and return-visit rates in your analytics.
Where does the feature work?
Preferred sources for Top Stories work globally, in every language where Google Search is available. The AI Overviews and AI Mode treatment follows Google’s rollout of those surfaces by region.
