2023 wasn’t a very good year for websites and publishers. After the Helpful Content Update was released back in September 2023, many websites got hit and stopped appearing in the search results, despite providing rich content. While some publishers are taking a break, others are shutting their doors for good. That said, Google has been experimenting with a new feature in Google Search, named Preferred Source. If you have used Google Search via your smartphone using a browser, it is highly likely that you have noticed the Preferred Source labels on a snippet in the SERPs. So, what does it mean? How does it affect search results? Here’s everything you need to know.
Google Search Results Page offers a bunch of personalized results based on previous searches and your preferences. Remember the For You label or the You Often Visit label? These provide results that are catered to your liking and help improve your overall experience while using Google Search. So, does this Preferred Source label also do the same? Is it catered to providing users with much better results?
Also read: Bing Generative Search: How to enable it?
Google Search Preferred Source: What does it mean for you?
If you have a little bit of information about how Google ranks websites on its SERPs, you would know that there are a ton of factors, including the site’s authority, credibility, content quality, and relevance that govern site rankings. All these factors play a huge role in determining which site ranks above which. However, finding the right content as a user can be a bit of a task if the first few results don’t provide you with the exact information you need. So, Google is experimenting with a new Preferred Source label that is granted to sites that have high authority and provide relevant content. This can help sites get a good reach among the plethora of sites.
However, since this is currently under experimentation, we don’t know how effective this feature is. But with time, it is expected that the feature will get additional updates to promote content that is highly rated and relevant. If you come across the Preferred Source label in the SERPs, know that the content promoted under it will be relatively more relevant than other results. This provides a win-win situation for both the user and the website. Users get access to the most relevant content at their fingertips, while websites are rewarded with high reach and visibility as they provide such content-rich pieces.
That said, we hope that you now have an idea of what the Google Search Preferred Source means. If you find this article informative, consider visiting Android Gram for more such interesting content.
