Source: Search Engine Watch by Sachin. Read the original article
TL;DR Summary of Google’s New Preferred Sources Feature for Search Results
Google has introduced a preferred sources feature that allows users to select their favorite websites, boosting those sites’ visibility in Top Stories and AI-generated summaries. This applies at the domain or subdomain level, excluding subdirectories. Website owners can check eligibility and encourage users to mark their site as preferred via a direct source preferences tool link, enhancing their search prominence.
Optimixed’s Overview: Enhancing Website Visibility with Google’s Preferred Sources Feature
Understanding the Preferred Sources Feature
Google’s latest update empowers users to designate certain websites as preferred sources on the search results page. This selection increases the likelihood that the chosen site’s content appears prominently in Top Stories and within AI-powered sections like AI Overviews and AI Mode, providing a significant visibility boost.
Eligibility Criteria
- Only domain-level or subdomain-level websites qualify (e.g.,
example.comorblog.example.com). - Subdirectories (e.g.,
example.com/blog) are not eligible. - This feature supports all languages, making it globally applicable.
How Website Owners Can Leverage This Feature
- Check eligibility by seeing if your site appears in Google’s source preferences tool.
- Share a custom URL (
https://google.com/preferences/source?q=yourwebsite.com) with your audience to guide them to select your site as a preferred source. - Encourage user engagement via newsletters, social media, or your website to increase preferred source selections.
By actively promoting your site as a preferred source, you can improve your content’s exposure in both traditional search results and AI-generated summaries, offering a strategic advantage in digital visibility.
