Selection is by automated evaluation against the criteria below — the same criteria, on every business in scope, in every market, every year. No subjective panel. Humans review the data; they do not pick winners.
We describe the criteria in plain language and deliberately keep the exact data points, weights, and thresholds internal. Publishing them would invite shortcuts, and the bar has to mean something.
A winner has been doing the work long enough to have a real track record. New businesses aren’t eligible yet — they earn it by sticking around.
Visibly present online for years: their own site, their listings, their profiles. Not a homepage that appeared last month.
Enough customers served that the public footprint reflects it. Not three reviews — a body of evidence.
Public sentiment is consistently positive. The community is glad they exist.
They show up where good local businesses show up: local guides, local press, the conversations a town has about itself.
We email you directly with a private verification report — the specific data we evaluated, for your records — and a signed link to the short application. The criteria grant the award; the application publishes the winner page, typically within one business day.
We never post negative verdicts. If we reach out, we name the qualitative criterion that fell short and tell you what to do about it. Every business is re-evaluated in the next annual run.
A Centurion Award is valid for the calendar year it was awarded. To stay current, a winner must clear the bar again in the January re-evaluation and renew for the new year. The bar never retires.
When a current winner was also eligible in prior years, they may claim those years too — each one published as its own dated winner page. Longevity is the whole point; it should show.
Closure, manipulated signals, false application facts, or misuse of the mark can revoke an award. Winners get a 14-day appeals window; a revoked page is replaced with a dated public notice — it does not quietly disappear.
Because every “best of” service that publishes its rubric gets gamed within months — and then the badge means nothing. We refuse to play that game.
The qualitative criteria above describe exactly what we evaluate. The precise data points and thresholds stay internal so they can’t be manufactured. If your business is a real local operator who has been doing the work for years, you are in the conversation. If you’re not yet — and we reach out — we’ll tell you which criterion to focus on.
Nominating is free — for you and for them. We’ll evaluate the business against the criteria and contact it directly if it’s eligible.