Google Gives Publishers a New Preferred Sources Button to Boost Visibility

Google is giving publishers a new way to encourage loyal readers to prioritise their content as AI-powered search changes how people discover information online. Publishers can now place a Preferred Sources button directly on their websites, allowing readers to tell Google they want to see more content from that publication.

The feature builds on Google’s existing Preferred Sources system, which highlights selected publishers in Search experiences including Top Stories, AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google expanded Preferred Sources into its AI search products in May.

Preferred Sources can increase publisher visibility.

Readers can also manage their favourite publishers through Google’s Source Preferences page, where they can search for a publication by name or website and add it to their preferred list.

Google said users are twice as likely to click through to a preferred source when that publisher has relevant content available. By May, users had selected more than 345,000 unique sources through the feature.

The new publisher-side button makes that process more direct. Instead of relying on readers to find Google’s preference settings on their own, news organisations and other eligible websites can encourage visitors to select them while they are already on the publisher’s site.

Google is also adding more control to Discover

Alongside the Preferred Sources update, Google is preparing a more conversational way for users to customise the Discover feed in its app. Readers will be able to open the three-dot menu on a Discover item and describe in their own words which topics they want to see more or less often.

Google will use those instructions to adjust its recommendations, giving users more direct control over the subjects that appear in their feeds rather than relying solely on existing activity and standard feedback controls.

Android users are also getting additional personalisation options for daily audio briefings in the Google News app.

For publishers, Preferred Sources does not guarantee placement in Google results. It does, however, give readers a clearer way to signal which websites they value, potentially helping those publications remain visible as AI-generated answers become a larger part of Google’s search experience.