How to select a Preferred Source in Google Top Stories

Google has dropped a feature that feels a bit like picking your favourite table in a café. It’s called Preferred Source and it’s now showing up in Google Top Stories. In short, you can tell Google which news outlets you’d like to see more often. If you’ve ever thought, “I wish Google would stop showing me that one tabloid” or “I’d like more from the paper I actually trust,” this is for you.

But it’s not just a win for readers. For publishers, it’s another chance to earn loyalty and show up more often where it matters. Let’s look at both sides.

How readers can add a preferred source

The process is about as simple as making a cup of tea. Here’s how it works:

1. Search for any news topic on Google. Type in “Premier League results” or “Donald Trump” or whatever is trending that day.
2. Scroll to the Top Stories section, the familiar carousel of headlines that sits right at the top.
   
3. Next to each publisher name, you’ll now see a new Preferred Source box. Choose the publishers that you want to see more often.
   
   
4. That’s it. You can add more outlets, and you can also go into your Google account later if you change your mind. Also, you still see the same icon of the "Preferred sources" next to the publisher name on top stories, when a chosen publisher appears in the sections.

What publishers should know about Preferred Source in Google Top Stories?

If you’re a publisher, you’re probably wondering, “How do we make sure people actually pick us?” Fair question. Here’s what matters.

Trust is everything

Readers will not make you their go-to if your reputation is shaky. Reliable reporting, transparency, and a clear editorial voice are what convince people to click that button.

Technical health still counts

Preferred Source doesn’t replace the usual Google ranking signals. If your pages are slow, messy on mobile, or breaking Core Web Vitals, you’re still at a disadvantage. This is the SEO equivalent of showing up to a marathon in flip-flops.

Don’t be shy about asking

If you have a loyal audience, tell them about the feature. A gentle nudge on your site, in your newsletter, or even on social can encourage people to add you as their preferred outlet. Just don’t overdo it or you’ll sound desperate.

Remember: it’s not a golden ticket

Being a preferred source means Google is more likely to show you to that reader, but it doesn’t guarantee you’ll always top the carousel. Relevance, freshness, and authority are still part of the game.

Watch the numbers

Google hasn’t made this easy. At the moment, there is no way to see in Google Search Console how many users have actually selected your publication as a Preferred Source. Search Console will still show you impressions and clicks from Top Stories (under Search Type: Web, unfortunalty) , but it won’t reveal whether a bump in visibility is due to the Preferred Source feature or just normal ranking shifts.

That’s where tools like StoryHawk come in. Since StoryHawk tracks Top Stories visibility and positions almost in real time, it gives you a clearer picture of how your coverage is performing hour by hour or day to day. While Google keeps the actual user selection data under wraps, combining Search Console with StoryHawk means you can at least connect visibility changes with your editorial and SEO efforts.

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Why it matters

For readers, this is about cutting through the noise and hearing more from outlets they trust. For publishers, it’s a chance to strengthen loyalty in a space where competition is fierce.

It’s also a reminder of how Google is trying to balance personalisation with credibility. By giving users a louder voice in their own feeds, Google makes it harder for publishers to rely on chance appearances. Instead, loyalty and trust really start to matter.

Readers can now fine-tune their Top Stories feed by picking preferred sources. Publishers who want to be picked need to focus on what they should have been doing all along: publishing high-quality journalism, keeping their sites technically sharp, and building genuine relationships with their audience.

I still think that this feature is great, but it won't shift to 100% to a massive personalisaiton of the Top Stories carousel. It'll be used by a lot of people but the majority will still have to select their preferences.

Svet Petkov

Svet Petkov is the founder of StoryHawk. He has a solid background in SEO optimisation and in the past couple of year in SEO for news publisher. With his passion of Python and data he is alway interest in providing a valuable data and sotry behind.