Frequently asked questions

Yes. Two things are verifiable before you pay anything: the criteria are published in plain language (read what we look for), and the application processing fee ($99 per year) is published openly. You can review both before you decide. Selection is by the criteria. There is no panel and no judging committee. We don't publish the exact data points or thresholds; publishing them would invite gaming. We do tell you in plain English what concepts we evaluate.

You may already be scanned. We pull candidates continuously from public sources. If you have not been contacted and you think your business clears the bar, use Nominate to put it in front of us. There is no fee to be nominated or scanned.

The methodology. No panel. No judges. No editorial committee. A human reviewer QAs the scan data and can correct identifiers or rescan, but cannot override a correctly-identified score.

Yes. $99 per year application processing fee. It covers production of the winner page, the digital asset kit, and the verification report PDF. The criteria grant the award; the fee covers production.

Nothing publishes. We do not publish negative verdicts. If we communicate the result to you, we name the qualitative criterion that fell short (for example, years in operation, established customer track record, or liked by customers and the community) and tell you what you can do to improve. You will be re-evaluated in next year's run.

Five things that match what operators usually pay other "best of" lists for, with no hoops:

• An SEO backlink from an authoritative third-party domain pointing to your website.
• A clickable link to display on your own site, pointing to your winner page on this domain.
• Website traffic from the winner page, social, and press picking up the announcement.
• A physical, dated plaque for the wall, so customers see it when they walk in.
• Social-ready assets (graphics, copy, suggested captions) for the announcement post.

More detail is on the methodology page.

Very little. The eligibility scan is the work, and we already did it on your behalf using public data. The application itself is short and 100% digital: confirm your business details, set the public-facing display name, pay the application processing fee. From application to live winner page is typically one business day. There's no second judging round; the criteria already decided whether your business qualified.

One calendar year. Awards run January 1 through December 31. To remain a current winner in the new year, your business must clear the bar in the January rescan and re-pay the $99 per year application processing fee. The renewal price is $99 per year, the same every year.

Yes, in narrow circumstances. If a winner closes mid-year, if our scan turns up later evidence that the public signals we evaluated were manipulated, if material facts in the application turn out to be false, or if the Centurion mark is misused, the award may be revoked. The winner has a 14-day appeals window from the date of the notice. If the decision is to revoke, the winner page is replaced with a dated, factual revocation notice (it does not 404).

Yes, if you were eligible. When you accept a current-year Centurion Award, the back-year scan runs alongside it. You may claim each eligible past year as a separate Centurion Award at $99 per year. Each back year publishes as its own dated winner page.

Pay-to-play sells the selection. We do not. Selection is by published criteria you can read before paying anything. The criteria are the gate; the application processing fee covers production. Either you clear the bar or you do not. The fee does not move you across the line. We describe the criteria in plain language and keep the exact data points internal so the bar can't be gamed.

No. Every winner in a city and category for a year is recognized as best of that town in their category for the year. No Gold, Silver, Bronze. No number one. No top five.

No. There are no sponsored categories and no paid placements anywhere on the site.

The application processing fee is non-refundable once the winner page is published. If we publish and you find a factual error sourced from our scan, we will correct it. If the award is later revoked, the fee remains non-refundable in all cases except where the revocation is caused by our own error (for example, we identified the wrong business); in that case we offer a credit toward a future Centurion Award if your business is later cleared.