If you haven’t set up preferred sources yet, please do it.
I’m convinced preferred sources could be major for SEO and GEO/AEO within Google AI.
Preferred sources allow users of Google to say they want to see your website more in AI Overviews, AI Mode, Top Stories, and Google Discover.
See it in action here: https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=edwardsturm.com
You can also use that link to see if your website is eligible (and it probably is).
I tested SaaS sites, local sites, ecom sites – THEY WERE ALL ELIGIBLE.
And despite what commenters on my viral video about this said, I don’t think this is just for news publishers.
The documentation says:
Feature availability:
The preferred sources feature is available globally for the “Top Stories” feature in all languages where Google Search is available. Preferred sources can also appear in AI Mode and AI Overviews in all languages and locales where those features are available.
Only domain-level and subdomain-level sites are eligible to appear in the source preferences tool. For example, https://www.example.com/ and https://code.example.com/ are eligible for preferred sources, but the subdirectory https://www.example.com/blog isn’t eligible.
And Google Discover documentation says:
We’ll continue to show content that’s personalized based on people’s creator and source preferences.
The original preferred sources announcement was for just news publishers, but I believe this already expanded beyond that because:
- There’s no RSS feed, Google News Publisher Center setup, News sitemap, or other news-publisher-specific technical requirements necessary to become a preferred source.
- Google now explicitly says, “Any website that publishes fresh content is eligible.” On top of that, again, I tested commercial SaaS sites, local sites, and ecommerce sites, and they were all eligible.
- The “Feature availability” shared above doesn’t say only blog content and explicitly says isolating subdirectories (like /blog/ or /news/) isn’t possible.
- Inclusion of AI Overviews and AI Mode goes beyond news.
- Is Google classifying everything as “news” or “not news” for this? I doubt it.
- It would be useful to searchers to get results beyond news from their favorite websites, even if the content isn’t perfectly optimized for their searches.
I could see any content – even bottom-of-funnel commercial content – being recommended.
Could preferred sources go beyond just the people who prefer you as a source?
I believe absolutely, yes (and that might have already happened).
Even Search Engine Journal says: Google’s Preferred Sources Is Now A Global SEO Signal
In fact, given enough adoption, it’s foolish to believe this would not be the case.
People choosing a site as a preferred source is another behavioral signal Google has at its disposal and we already know behavioral signals are huge ranking factors within search.
And even if it isn’t a direct “SEO signal” like Search Engine Journal says it is, it will still have major downstream consequences.
A good parallel is YouTube, where subscriptions influence recommendations to similar users who are not subscribed, influence viewing behavior, and ultimately influence the behavioral signals that affect YouTube search results (in addition to content relevance).
So what does this mean for you?
It means you should add a few preferred sources buttons to your website. Now.
Here’s how I did it in my footer:
Here’s how I did it at the end of blog posts:
But you can also do it at the top of blog posts, in your header navigation, as a pop up, or even strategically inside content right after a particularly good part that gets people to like your brand.
And the beautiful thing is these buttons don’t take users off-site. If a browser isn’t set to full screen, the buttons open in a pop up so the user stays on your content.
How to implement Google’s preferred sources
Implementation takes 5 minutes.
You can use Google’s own button, or style your own like I did.
Go to an LLM. Give your CMS, page builder, and any relevant plugins. Say whether you want to use the default button or style your own. Then copy and paste in the entire preferred sources documentation.
That’s exactly what I did. It was very easy.
Do it now.
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