Google's Preferred Source Button: What It Is and How to Add It to Your Site

The code is further down, ready to copy. Before you paste it, take two minutes to see what this button really does. Then you can decide whether it deserves a spot on your site.

What a preferred source is

Think of the newsstand on your corner. The owner knows which paper you buy and sets one aside for you. Everyone else still sees the whole rack.

Google built something similar. Readers pick the sites they like and then see those sites more often in Search. ¹ The feature is called Preferred Sources, and the button reads “Add to Preferred Sources”.

Those sites show up in Top Stories for the people who chose them. ¹ In AI Overviews and AI Mode, their content can get a “preferred” badge. ¹ That is what a preferred source means.

This is the real button, working right here. If you want to try it now, pick SEO Genome:

How the feature got here

Google started with a Search Labs test in June 2025. It was English only, in the United States and India. ³ On August 12, 2025, the feature arrived in Top Stories. ³

On December 10, 2025, it went global for people searching in English. ³ Since April 30, 2026, it works in every language Search supports. ³

On May 27, 2026, it reached AI Overviews and AI Mode. ⁴ The chosen links got a visible badge inside the answer. ⁴

The button for websites came later, on August 20, 2026. ⁵ Until then, readers had to find the setting on their own.

What the button does, and what it doesn’t

The number everyone repeats came from Nick Fox, a senior vice president at Google. He wrote that people are 2 times more likely to click a site after marking it. ³ Google has not published the methodology.

Here, honesty matters. Someone who marks a site already likes it. Part of that doubling comes from the reader’s own preference, before any badge shows up.

Readers have chosen more than 600,000 sites, according to Google in August 2026. ⁵ In December 2025 there were close to 90,000. ³ In May 2026, more than 345,000. ⁴ That count covers every site readers picked, with or without the button installed.

The choice belongs to the reader. The effect shows up on the screen of whoever marked your site. Nobody serious can promise rankings with this, and I won’t either.

The button isn’t required, either. Readers can mark your site without it. ¹ The button only shortens the path to the setting. The documentation says these steps aren’t required to appear as a preferred source. ¹

There is one more detail. Sources that don’t publish regularly may not even show up as options. ³ In practice, the effect depends on publishing often.

Before you install: is your site eligible?

Only domains and subdomains are accepted in the tool. Subfolders are left out. ¹ Google’s own example: example.com/blog is not eligible. ¹

For the badge to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, there is one more condition. Your site has to be included in Search’s generative AI features, in Search Console. ¹

How to install it in a few minutes

Step 1: check that your site shows up

Go to google.com/preferences/source and search for your domain. If it shows up in the list, move on. If it doesn’t, the button won’t fix that.

Step 2: paste the script into the header

This code goes in the <head> of your site. On WordPress or site builders, look for a header code field. Many themes and plugins offer one.

<script async src="https://news.google.com/swg/js/v1/publisher.js"></script>

Step 3: paste the button where it should appear

Google leaves the placement up to you: the button goes anywhere on the page. ¹ Here on seogenome.com, it sits in the footer and at the end of every article.

<div google-add-preferred-source-btn data-lang="en"></div>

If your site has a dark background, use this version. The light theme is the default. ¹

<div google-add-preferred-source-btn data-theme="dark" data-lang="en"></div>

The language detail almost nobody gets right

Without the language attribute, the button follows the visitor’s browser language. ¹ To lock it to English, the official code is en. For British English, it’s en-GB. ²

The code has to match the official list exactly. We learned this on the Portuguese side of seogenome.com, on October 14, 2026. With data-lang="pt", the button came out in English. With data-lang="pt-BR", it came out in Portuguese. If your button shows the wrong language, check the code against the list first.

Step 4: the no-script option

Your site doesn’t accept code? Use the direct link. Swap the example domain for yours.

https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=yoursite.com

That link can go in text, an image, a social post, or your newsletter. ¹ For the image, Google offers official badges already translated. ¹ The pack with every language is at https://services.google.com/fh/files/helpcenter/google_preferred_source_badge_all_languages.zip.

Step 5: test it yourself

Open your site and click the button. Google shows the selection flow. Confirm it and check that you land back on your page. Do it on your phone too, because that’s where most people will click.

No button works if nobody knows who you are

The button makes the choice easier. It doesn’t create the reason to choose. Readers only mark a site they recognize and trust.

Before anyone picks your site, it needs to be recognizable. For readers and for Google, it needs a clear name, topic, and face. That is called an entity.

If that’s your next step, start with the guide to entity SEO. Then see how to build the page that says who you are. And learn how brand authority gets built over time.