---
title: "Get readers to add your site as a Google preferred source"
description: "Google's preferred sources tool lets a reader mark the publications they want to see more of. Share a pre-filled preferences link (google.com/preferences/source?q=yourdomain.com) in the newsletter, email signatures, blog article footers and pinned social posts, and ask readers to confirm. The listing is per user, so it lifts visibility only for people who opt in."
url: "https://seo-mcp.io/t/get-readers-to-add-your-site-as-a-google-preferred-source"
---

# Get readers to add your site as a Google preferred source

Google's preferred sources tool lets a reader mark the publications they want to see more of. Share a pre-filled preferences link (google.com/preferences/source?q=yourdomain.com) in the newsletter, email signatures, blog article footers and pinned social posts, and ask readers to confirm. The listing is per user, so it lifts visibility only for people who opt in.

## Prerequisites

- A live domain you can verify in Google's preferred sources tool
- Access to the newsletter template, team email signatures and social profiles
- Google Search Console access to check AI feature settings

## Steps

1. **Open the pre-filled preferences link** — Visit https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=yourdomain.com, replacing yourdomain.com with your own bare domain, and confirm that the tool recognises your publication with a follow or confirm control.
   Check: The preferences page loads showing your publication name and a confirmation control instead of an error or empty state.
2. **Check the AI features setting in Search Console** — Open the Search Console settings for the property and confirm the site is not excluded from AI features; an excluded property will not be highlighted in AI surfaces.
   Check: The AI features setting for the property shows it as included, not opted out.
3. **Add the ask to blog article footers** — In the article template, append a one-line request with the pre-filled preferences link at the end of every post.
   Check: View-source on a published article contains an anchor whose href is https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=yourdomain.com.
4. **Add the link to the newsletter and email signatures** — Put the line "Add us as a preferred source in Google" with the pre-filled link into the newsletter template and the email signature used by the whole team.
   Check: Send a test email to yourself and click the link; it resolves to the preferences page with your domain already filled in.
5. **Install Google's preferred-source button** — If a text link is not wanted, use the button Google provides, which installs with a short code snippet, in place of the plain anchor.
   Check: The button renders on the page and its href resolves to the preferences URL with your domain in the q parameter.
6. **Pin the ask on social profiles** — Publish the same request on your social profiles and pin that post to the top of each profile.
   Check: The pinned post appears at the top of the profile and its link opens your pre-filled preferences page.
7. **Use a descriptive anchor with rel=noopener** *(general best practice)* — Write the anchor text so it states the action, and add rel="noopener" when the link opens in a new tab.
   Check: Rendered HTML shows the descriptive anchor text and rel="noopener" on the link.
8. **Record a baseline before you launch** *(general best practice)* — Because Search Console does not report clicks arriving from AI surfaces, annotate the launch date in analytics and note branded-query clicks in Search Console so a later comparison is possible.
   Check: The annotation exists for the launch date and a Search Console query filter on your brand name returns the baseline row for that date range.

## Source

@isocialwebseo on 2026-10-19: https://x.com/isocialwebseo/status/2112087989530591476

Canonical: https://seo-mcp.io/t/get-readers-to-add-your-site-as-a-google-preferred-source