What makes something the best? Is it the fanciest? The most expensive? The most popular? The one with the most five-star reviews online? Or is it simply the place you trust, the person who always comes through or the business you would recommend to your neighbor without hesitation?

“Best” is a funny word because everybody seems to agree on what it means until they have to decide who actually deserves the title. By definition, being the best means excelling above all others in a particular area and providing the highest level of quality, performance or satisfaction. That sounds pretty straightforward. Until two people disagree. And, of course, they will.

That is what makes our Best of Guthrie County readers’ poll so interesting. It is not our opinion. It is not based on who bought the most advertising, who has the slickest website or who has figured out how to make Google love them. It is based on what our readers think.

You have likely heard of SEO, or search engine optimization. It is the process businesses use to improve their visibility in internet searches. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. Being found online is important. But there is a difference between being the easiest business to find and being the best business to use. One can be accomplished with technology and marketing. The other has to be earned. That’s the philosophy behind our Best of Guthrie County poll, and the proof is in the pudding. This year, a record 1,052 votes were cast across 91 categories.

In our poll, we do something that makes our job considerably more difficult but, we believe, makes the results more authentic: We do not pre-load the ballot with suggested answers. Every category is a fill-in-the-blank. You tell us. That means we have to sort through the responses, identify the vote totals, sort them all and make sure the results are accurate. It is more work than handing you a list and asking you to check a box, but we think it is worth it.

Again this year, we added a formal event to celebrate the winners. The invitation-only Best of Guthrie County event was held Sept. 9 at the Guthrie County Fairgrounds, with the top three vote-getters in each of the 91 categories invited. The event once again reached maximum capacity.

Now, we are pleased to share the results with everyone. You will find the full results in this issue of The Times Vedette, as well as the September editions of Lake Panorama Times, Guthrie Center Times and Panora Times.

When you see the winners, congratulate them. Then do something even better: Give them your business. Shop locally. Eat locally. Hire locally. And when it comes time to market your business or organization, we hope you advertise locally, too. We encourage you to support the people and businesses your neighbors have identified as the best.

Have a fantastic Friday, and thanks for reading.

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital newsletter
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707