How to Get Your Business Into Local Best-of Lists

A local "best of" list, whether it is a newspaper's top ten patios or a city blog's favorite brunch spots, is written by a real person choosing what to include. That means getting onto one is not a ranking problem you solve with better SEO. It is a relationship and timing problem. Show up on a journalist's radar before they start writing, make their job easy, and genuinely be worth including, and the list writes itself around you.

Why best-of lists carry so much weight

A best-of list does more work than almost any other kind of coverage a small food business can get, because it does something a star rating cannot: it tells a reader exactly what to order, when to go, and why this place beat the other twenty in town. That specificity is what makes it earned media, coverage you earn through merit and relationships rather than pay for, and readers can tell the difference. A "best of" placement reads like a recommendation from a friend, not an ad.

It also carries real trust. BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 29 percent of consumers turn to local news outlets as a source for local business reviews, down from 48 percent a year earlier. Roughly three in ten people deciding where to eat this week are, at some point, reading local press, and a best-of roundup is one of the most common formats that local press produces. Getting into one is not a vanity win. It is landing in the exact place a meaningful share of your future customers are already looking.

Best-of lists are also increasingly what AI answer engines lean on when someone asks "what's the best brunch spot in town." A curated, credible local roundup is precisely the kind of trusted third-party source an AI Overview or chatbot pulls from to build its answer. A restaurant that has never appeared on one of these lists is invisible to that entire channel, no matter how good the food is.

The relationship comes before the list

The single biggest mistake local businesses make is treating best-of outreach as a one-time pitch sent right before the list gets published. By then it is usually too late. Editors who run annual or seasonal roundups, like "best patios for summer" or "best holiday brunch," typically start building their list weeks before it runs, often by asking readers for suggestions, checking who has been in the news lately, or simply remembering who reached out earlier in the year with something interesting.

That means the actual work happens months in advance: introducing your business to the local food writer before you need anything from them, sending them something genuinely useful (a new dish, a seasonal update, a data point about your neighborhood), and staying visible without being pushy. When list season comes around, you want to already be a name that writer recognizes, not a cold pitch competing with fifty others in their inbox that week.

This matters even more now because there are simply fewer people to build that relationship with. The editors who compile those lists are stretched thinner than they were: Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News counted 7.8 local journalist equivalents per 100,000 residents in early 2026, an 81 percent fall from roughly 40 per 100,000 in 2002. Fewer writers means each one is covering more ground with less time, and the businesses they already know and trust have a real edge when list time comes.

Have photos, a one-line reason, and correct hours ready

Once you have that relationship, or even a cold introduction, remove every bit of friction between the writer and a finished sentence about your business. Have two or three strong, well-lit photos ready to send. Have one clear answer, in a sentence, to "what makes this place worth including." Have your hours, address, and any seasonal details correct and easy to find, because a writer under deadline will not chase down a business that makes them work for basic facts.

If the list has a public nomination or reader-suggestion form, fill it out. It sounds too simple to matter, but many local outlets genuinely use those forms as a first pass, and skipping it means you are relying entirely on the writer already knowing you exist.

One placement makes the next pitch easier to say yes to

A best-of placement is not the finish line. Link to it from your own site and social channels. Mention it the next time you pitch that same outlet or a different one, because "recently named one of the city's best patios" is a credibility signal that makes the next pitch easier to say yes to. And keep the relationship going after the list runs. The businesses that appear on these roundups year after year are almost never the ones with the best luck. They are the ones that stayed in touch.

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