Social Rocket
Google gives publishers a direct way to win readers as a "Preferred Source". Since 20 August 2026, websites can embed an official button that lets users save a domain as a preferred source. For these users, content from the selected website can then be more likely to appear in Top Stories and be highlighted in AI Overviews and AI Mode with a "preferred" label.
For publishers and brands with editorial content, this is noteworthy because loyalty now becomes visible in Google's generative search interfaces. But the limit matters: Preferred Sources are not a general SEO boost. The effect applies to users who have actively selected a source.
How the new Preferred Sources button works
Google provides website operators with an embedded button. When a reader clicks it, the website is saved as a preferred source and the user is then redirected back to the original page.
According to Google Search Central, the standard integration consists of just two HTML components: a script and the button element itself. There is also an customizable JavaScript variant and a deeplink that can be used in newsletters, social posts or promotions.
Domains and subdomains are eligible. A single subdirectory such as `example.com/blog`, however, cannot be selected separately as a Preferred Source.
Google explicitly emphasizes that the button is not a prerequisite for being selectable as a preferred source at all. It merely lowers the friction of opting in.
Why this matters more for AI visibility
Preferred Sources originally launched around Top Stories. According to Google, selected sources can now also be highlighted in AI Mode and AI Overviews with a "preferred" label.
Alongside classic SEO and technical AI visibility, this creates an additional, user-based layer: a publisher must not only be relevant for a search query, but can also get its existing community to permanently save it as a preferred source.
This does not replace clean information architecture, original content or technical accessibility. These fundamentals remain just as decisive for ChatGPT recommendations and AI visibility. Preferred Sources add to them a loyalty signal that the reader sets themselves.
More than 600.000 sources have already been selected
On 20 August, Google reported that users have already selected more than 600.000 different sources as Preferred Sources. The figure describes the breadth of selected domains, not the total number of selection actions or users.
Already during the worldwide language rollout in April, Google reported that readers on average click a website twice as often after marking it as a Preferred Source. This is an observation by Google itself and not evidence that the new button across the board doubles traffic.
For publishers, the approach is still relevant. Many media houses are currently trying to offset declining or less predictable search referrals. Some are buying significantly more paid search traffic, while large publishers are restructuring their audience teams toward AI search and off-platform discovery.
Preferred Sources take a different approach: instead of buying new reach, they aim to carry existing reader loyalty into Google's interface.
Discover is also becoming more user-controllable
In parallel, Google is expanding personalization in Discover. Users are to be able to change their feed directly in natural language – for example by indicating which topics or links they want to see more or less often.
This is also interesting from a social media perspective. Recommendation feeds have long been controlled primarily through implicit signals such as clicks, watch time and interactions. Google is now adding explicit user instructions to this mechanism.
For content teams, this means reach will depend more on whether users deliberately want to keep seeing a source or topic area. Pure click optimization will be less sufficient than a recognizable editorial positioning and recurring value.
What publishers and brands should check now
If you regularly publish news, guides or other current content, you can test Preferred Sources with relatively little effort. Three steps are especially worthwhile:
- check whether your own domain can be found in Google's Preferred Sources tool,
- use the official button or deeplink in places with high reader engagement,
- and measure whether recurring Google traffic or clicks from news and AI surfaces change.
The button is better suited to existing reader relationships than to cold reach. If people don't know your brand yet, they are unlikely to save it proactively as a preferred source.
That is precisely why the feature is not simply a new SEO checkbox. It connects audience development, brand loyalty and AI search: if you convince readers to come back regularly, you can partly transfer that relationship into Google's own discovery and AI surfaces in the future.