How Do You Rank in Google’s “Sources Across the Web” Feature?

What does the feature look like?

Search consultant Glenn Gabe documented the feature in 2020, noting it combined Knowledge Graph entities with carousels of articles and could take up a lot of the screen. It became more common from mid-2024, especially on mobile. In a sample of more than one million US mobile keywords that seoClarity published in August 2024, soon after the feature spread, it appeared in the top three positions more than 96% of the time and first 84% of the time.

How do you become one of the listed items?

The list is built from entities that appear together with the topic across the web. Analysts who have studied it describe the logic as co-occurrence: brands frequently mentioned in reviews, comparisons and best-of articles about a topic are the ones listed. In practice:

• Make your brand or product a clear entity. Use the same name everywhere, describe what it is in plain words on your site, and add Organization or Product markup with links to your official profiles.
• Earn mentions in the pages that cover your topic, such as independent reviews, comparison articles and industry lists. Offer data, trials or demos to writers; do not pay for undisclosed placements.
• Collect reviews on the sites people trust in your category, which often sit in the carousels themselves. Ask every customer for an honest review in their own words.
• Be accurate about what you are for. A product mentioned for the wrong use case will be listed for the wrong queries, or not at all.

The same co-occurrence signals shape AI answers, as covered in how co-citation and co-occurrence affect AI recommendations.

How do you get your page into a carousel?

Each carousel shows pages about one listed item in the context of the query. To appear in, say, the carousel for a competitor or for your own product:

• Publish pages that discuss specific items for specific uses, such as a review of a tool for a particular team type, or a guide comparing two named products.
• Name the items clearly in titles, headings and the opening paragraph.
• Make the page genuinely useful, with first-hand detail, prices, pros and cons. Thin pages written to match lists are risky, as covered in whether scaled content can be penalised.
• Keep it crawlable and fast, with the content in the HTML.

Your own product page can appear in its own carousel too, so write it to answer the query's use case, not only to describe features.

How does Search Console count it?

Google's Search Console help says items inside carousels or expanding sections usually count an impression only when they are scrolled or expanded into view. The carousels in this feature are hidden until someone taps an item, so your card may earn impressions only after that tap. When it does, Gabe observed that it takes the position of the whole block, which is often position 1. A query showing position 1 with a low click-through rate can therefore mean your page sits in one of these carousels rather than as the top blue link. Search Console cannot filter for this feature, so use a rank tracker that records it, and check the results by hand on mobile.

How does it relate to AI Overviews and AI Mode?

They draw on similar signals. List-style AI answers also name brands that appear together with the topic across many sources, and cite pages from across the web. Where an AI Overview and this block both appear, the page can be crowded, and the classic blue links sit further down. Earning mentions in the right lists helps with both. How closely AI Overviews follow organic rankings is covered in whether AI Overviews mainly cite top-ranking sites, and why ranking alone is not enough in why a page can rank but not appear in AI answers.

What should you do first?

1. Find the queries where the block appears for your category, on mobile and desktop.
2. Record the listed items and carousel pages for each, and note which publishers appear repeatedly.
3. Check whether you are listed. If not, list the pages that mention your competitors and pitch the ones that fit.
4. Check whether your pages appear in any carousel, including your own item's, and improve the ones that could.
5. Repeat monthly, since the lists change as coverage changes.

We have not run our own study of this feature. This page is based on Search Console's help documentation and published analyses by Glenn Gabe and seoClarity.

What might this look like in practice?

Consider an illustrative time-tracking app, Clockwise Lane, that ranked on page one for “best time tracking app for freelancers” but never appeared in the “From sources across the web” list above it. The list showed six rivals, and their carousels drew on the same four review sites and two comparison blogs. The team offered those writers extended trials and usage data, and one reviewer added Clockwise Lane to an updated roundup. It also published a detailed guide for freelancers billing several clients, naming each rival fairly. Three months later the app appeared in the list on mobile, and its guide showed in two rivals' carousels.

What do people ask about “From sources across the web”?

Can I submit my product to the list?

No. Google builds it automatically from how the web talks about the topic.

Does schema markup get me listed?

It helps Google understand your brand or product as an entity, but mentions on other sites decide whether you are listed.

Why does Search Console show position 1 with few clicks?

Your page may appear in a carousel inside this block, which takes the block's position.

Does it appear for every query?

No. It shows mainly for list-style searches that ask for options, such as best-of, top or which-to-choose questions, and appears more often on mobile.

Is the feature the same as an AI Overview?

No. It is a list with carousels of web pages, not a generated summary, though both draw on similar signals.