Two new presentations, counting of what readers do, and a four-tab settings screen. Presentation is now one setting; a site whose 1.0 values differed keeps what its articles showed. Counting adds a table of day-by-day totals holding nothing about any reader; switch it off on the Analytics tab.<\/p>","1.0.0":"
Adds a setup wizard, a live preview, category targeting and a suggested privacy-policy paragraph. 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SourceSignal makes it easy to add Preferred Sources buttons and prompts to your WordPress site \u2014 without editing code or hiring a developer.<\/p>\n\n
Install the plugin, choose what you want the button to look like and where you want it to appear, and turn it on.<\/p>\n\n
That's it.<\/p>\n\n
I run a small independent publishing company. We don't have an in-house development team.<\/p>\n\n
When Google launched Preferred Sources, I wanted it on our sites. The basic Google code looked simple enough. Making it work the way I wanted across WordPress, different placements, mobile devices, caching and our existing site setup was another story.<\/p>\n\n
So I built SourceSignal.<\/p>\n\n
The goal was simple: make Google Preferred Sources something a publisher can set up in a few minutes instead of another project to send to a developer.<\/p>\n\n
We use it on our own publishing sites, and we've tested it on real WordPress sites and browsers.<\/p>\n\n
[preferred_source]<\/code> shortcode yourself.<\/li>\n- Control where it shows.<\/strong> Limit automatic placement to the post types and categories you choose.<\/li>\n
- Preview everything before turning it on.<\/strong> The wizard and the settings screen draw the real prompt at phone, article or full width. Nothing changes for readers until you press Turn it on<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
- See what readers do.<\/strong> Day-by-day counts of how often each prompt was on screen, pressed, and opened Google's flow \u2014 kept on your own site, with nothing about any reader in them. Optionally send the same counts to the Google Analytics tag your site already runs.<\/li>\n
- Don't nag your readers.<\/strong> Choose how long to hide it after someone uses or closes it.<\/li>\n
- Works with page caching and CDNs.<\/strong> Every visitor gets the same HTML; the reader's browser decides whether to show it.<\/li>\n
- Still works if Google's script doesn't load.<\/strong> Readers get a link to Google's Source Preferences page instead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
A note about Google<\/h4>\n\n
SourceSignal helps you promote Google's Preferred Sources feature. Google controls the feature and the final selection happens on Google's side.<\/p>\n\n
Google does not provide publishers with confirmation that an individual reader completed the selection, so SourceSignal does not report clicks as confirmed Preferred Source adds. The counts on the Analytics tab are of what happened on your own pages \u2014 on screen, pressed, Google's flow opened \u2014 and nothing more.<\/p>\n\n
SourceSignal is an independent publisher tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. The compact pill and the promotional card carry Google's G so readers recognise what the button does; they are drawn by the plugin and are not Google's official button.<\/p>\n\n
Want to promote Preferred Sources beyond your website?<\/h4>\n\n
We're also building SourceSignal Pro for publishers who want to promote Preferred Sources through newsletters, social media and print.<\/p>\n\n
Pro adds publisher-controlled campaign links, printable QR codes, campaign management and reporting for the parts of the funnel we can actually measure \u2014 including views, clicks and Google-flow launches.<\/p>\n\n
Pro is coming soon.<\/p>\n\n
External services<\/h3>\n\n
To open Google's Preferred Sources screen, this plugin loads Google's publisher library from https:\/\/news.google.com\/swg\/js\/v1\/publisher.js<\/code>.<\/p>\n\nWhen it loads:<\/strong> on pages that carry a Preferred Sources button or prompt \u2014 or, if you switch on \"Let buttons added outside the block editor open the card too\", on every page of your site. That setting is off unless you turn it on, and the settings screen tells you which state your site is in.<\/p>\n\nWhat Google receives:<\/strong> loading that file is a request to Google, so Google receives what any web request carries \u2014 the reader's IP address, their browser, and the address of the page they are on. If you use Google's own rendered button, Google also draws it inside a frame served from Google, and that frame receives the address of the article the reader is on. Google's library also records, on Google's side, that it was loaded and that its button was shown or pressed, against the address of the page; this plugin does not see those records and cannot switch them off.<\/p>\n\nThe fallback:<\/strong> when Google's library cannot load, or JavaScript is switched off, the prompt becomes a plain link to Google's Source Preferences page, https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=yourdomain.com<\/code>. It is written into the page but only requested if a reader follows it.<\/p>\n\nGoogle's handling of any of this is governed by Google's own terms and privacy policy, not by this plugin:<\/p>\n\n
\n- Terms: https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms<\/li>\n
- Privacy: https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
Google Analytics (optional, off by default).<\/strong> If you tick \"Also send these as events to Google Analytics\" on the Analytics tab, the reader's browser also sends one event per count \u2014 psfp_view<\/code>, psfp_click<\/code>, psfp_invoke<\/code>, psfp_fallback<\/code>, psfp_dismiss<\/code> \u2014 through whatever Google tag your site already runs. Each event carries which prompt it was, where on the page it sat, its position, the content type and a schema number, and nothing about the reader. This plugin loads no analytics script of its own: if your site has no Google tag, nothing is sent. What Google does with those events is governed by Google's privacy policy (https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy).<\/p>\n\nPrivacy<\/h3>\n\n
Nothing about any individual reader is stored on your server.<\/strong> There is no reader table, no event log, no visitor identifier, no IP address and no user-agent string, and nothing is ever sent to the plugin's author.<\/p>\n\nCounting, which you can switch off.<\/strong> While counting is on, the plugin keeps day-by-day totals in one table on your own site: a date, which prompt it was, where on the page it sat, and how many times it was on screen, pressed, opened Google's flow, fell back to the plain link, or was closed. A row is a day, not a person, and rows older than 400 days are deleted automatically. Your own visits as a logged-in editor are not counted. Switch counting off on the Analytics tab and the table is never written to and the counting script is never loaded.<\/p>\n\nIn the reader's own browser<\/strong>, when they press or close a Preferred Sources button or prompt, the plugin saves a date stamp \u2014 in local storage and in a first-party cookie of the same name:<\/p>\n\n\npsfp_used_at<\/code> \u2014 the reader pressed it.<\/li>\npsfp_closed_at<\/code> \u2014 the reader closed it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\nEach holds a date and nothing else: no name, no account, no identifier. The cookie is set with path=\/<\/code> and SameSite=Lax<\/code>, and expires by itself after the window you chose. Nothing is written merely because a reader was shown the prompt, and nothing at all is written if both windows are set to \"Keep showing it\"<\/strong>. Your server never reads either copy, which is what keeps page caching working \u2014 though the cookies travel with ordinary page requests the way every cookie does.<\/p>\n\nIt is per browser, not per person: the same reader on a phone and a laptop counts twice, and clearing site data resets it.<\/p>\n\n
WordPress's Settings \u2192 Privacy<\/strong> screen carries a suggested paragraph for your own privacy policy, generated from your site's own settings, including the counting and Google Analytics paragraphs only when those are switched on. It is a starting point, not legal advice.<\/p>\n\nThe plugin stores its own settings in psfp_settings<\/code> and psfp_setup<\/code>, a note of what the 1.1 upgrade changed in psfp_migration<\/code>, a 60-second marker after activation, and \u2014 while counting is on \u2014 the table of day-by-day totals, psfp_analytics_daily<\/code>, with a daily job that deletes rows older than 400 days. Uninstalling removes all of it \u2014 the options, the table and the job \u2014 from every site on a network, and leaves your posts alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n- Install and activate the plugin. Nothing changes for readers yet.<\/li>\n
- WordPress opens Set up Preferred Sources<\/strong>. (If it does not, open Preferred Sources \u2192 Setup<\/strong> from the admin menu.)<\/li>\n
- Answer the questions \u2014 where it should appear, on what content, how it should look, what it should say \u2014 watching the preview beside them.<\/li>\n
- Press Turn it on<\/strong> on the last step.<\/li>\n
- If your site uses a caching plugin or a CDN, clear its cache.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
To place it by hand instead, add the Preferred Sources button<\/strong> block to any post or page. In the editor, search for \u201cpreferred sources\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow do I add Google Preferred Sources to WordPress?<\/h3><\/dt>\nInstall this plugin, answer the setup questions, look at the preview, and press Turn it on<\/strong>. You can also drop the Preferred Sources button block into a post (search \u201cpreferred sources\u201d in the editor), or use the [preferred_source]<\/code> shortcode.<\/p><\/dd>\nDo I need to add Google's JavaScript manually?<\/h3><\/dt>\nNo. The plugin loads Google's publisher library on pages that need it, and leaves it off pages that do not.<\/p><\/dd>\n
Can I add Preferred Sources without a developer?<\/h3><\/dt>\nYes. Install it, choose where it appears and how it looks, preview it, and turn it on. No PHP, no JavaScript, no templates.<\/p><\/dd>\n
Which presentation should I choose?<\/h3><\/dt>\nGoogle's official button is drawn by Google, in each reader's own language, and changes when Google changes it. The compact pill sits in a byline or next to a date; the promotional card is a house-ad panel for mid-article or the end of a story \u2014 both are drawn by the plugin and carry Google's G. The plain card, inline button, text link and the card in your own colours carry no Google logo and follow your theme. Every one of them opens the same Google screen; the settings screen previews each before you save.<\/p><\/dd>\n
Does it work with caching and CDNs?<\/h3><\/dt>\nYes. Every visitor gets the same HTML, and whether a particular reader sees the prompt is decided in their browser. Clear your cache after you change a setting.<\/p><\/dd>\n
Can I control which posts or categories show it?<\/h3><\/dt>\nYes. Automatic placement can run before or after articles, on the post types you choose, and \u2014 for posts \u2014 only in, or except in, the categories you choose. You can also place a block or shortcode by hand and leave automatic placement off.<\/p><\/dd>\n