Readers can add your site as a Google preferred source with one button

The button that lets a reader pin your site as a preferred source in Google takes two tags to install — and roughly 345,000 publications have already added it. The mechanics are simple: a reader clicks, marks you as a preferred source, and your material starts showing up more often for them in Top Stories, AI Overviews and AI Mode. This is personalisation for that one reader only: it does not lift your site's rankings in general and it guarantees nothing about any single article.

One caveat about addresses: domains and subdomains are supported, subdirectories are not, so example.com/blog will not work. Your publication also has to be findable in Google's source preferences tool, and the feature is available globally wherever Top Stories runs. Search Engine Journal published the full walkthrough with code, including a ready-made PHP widget for WordPress with theme and alignment options.

Why an SEO team should care: clicks are harder to earn in results dominated by AI Overviews and AI Mode, and a preferred source is one of the few levers where the reader decides rather than the algorithm.

On your site this comes down to a short list:

• load the library once in <head>: <script async src="https://news.google.com/swg/js/v1/publisher.js"></script> — it detects your domain automatically;
• drop the button into your article template: <div google-add-preferred-source-btn></div>; readers land back on the same page after adding you;
• for a dark layout add data-theme="dark", and override the interface language with data-lang if needed;
• for newsletters, social posts and anywhere scripts are off-limits, use the deeplink google.com/preferences/source?q=your-domain — no JavaScript required, though the reader ticks the box manually;
• fire a GTM or gtag.js event on click so GA4 shows demand — completion itself cannot be verified;
• place the button where the reader already agrees with you: end of the article, author box, subscription page — not in the footer next to the copyright line.

The weak spot in the whole setup is that final checkbox: readers tick it themselves, and no analytics will show whether they actually finished.

Related reading: Google Discover Optimization: How to Get Traffic Without Search Queries · SEO site audit