Who gets listed
A business makes the guide when its owner runs it from Apex, Cary or Holly Springs. That covers the restaurant on Salem Street, the owner-operated electrician who works out of a truck and a home office, and the family dental office on Kildaire Farm Road.
National chains and franchise locations are left off, even when the franchise owner lives down the street. A franchise comes with a national brand's marketing behind it. This guide is for the small businesses that don't have that. Small local groups with a few locations around the Triangle are fine.
The guide covers these three towns only. If a business has an Apex, Cary or Holly Springs address, it counts.
How likes are checked
A like is a neighbor putting their name behind a business: first name, last initial and the town they live in. There are no star ratings and no anonymous reviews.
Every like starts with an email address. We send a one-time link that expires in 48 hours, and nothing shows until it's clicked. One email address can like a business once. Locals confirm they've been a customer and don't own or work for the business, and we turn away throwaway email services and addresses on the business's own web domain.
Likes are open to people who live in Apex, Cary or Holly Springs. Every new one is reviewed after it posts. Anything that looks like a business liking itself, a pile-on from out of town, or a note that's really an ad comes down. You can sign in to My Likes with the same email anytime to change your note or take a like back.
How a Best Of list is earned
A category in one town becomes a Best Of list once at least 3 of its businesses have likes from 3 or more different locals. Until then it's a plain A to Z list of locally owned businesses with no ranking. We don't call anything "best" until locals have said so.
Once a list is live, the businesses with likes are ranked by points: a like counts 1 and a love counts 2. When two have the same points, the one with more public reviews online goes first - we use that count only to break ties and never show it. Businesses without likes yet follow A to Z.
Featured businesses appear in a labeled box above the list. Being featured never moves a business up the ranking itself.
What "Featured" means
Featured listings get a longer profile with photos, services and a direct website link, and they appear in a labeled spot on their category and town pages. Every featured listing carries a Featured label.
Featured businesses are clients of Peak City Web Design, the Apex company that runs Locals Like It, or businesses that sponsor it. Featured status never comes with likes - those only come from locals, the same way as everyone else's.
For business owners
Every listing is free. Owners can claim their listing to add up to six photos, their story, services and hours. Once we confirm you own the business, you sign in with your business email and changes go live in about a minute.
Who runs it
Locals Like It is run by Matt Kelley, who owns Peak City Web Design in Apex and has built websites for Triangle small businesses since 2009.
It started the way a lot of local recommendations do: a group of guys in Cary and Apex keeping a shared document of the plumbers, mechanics and roofers they'd used and would call again. This is the public version of that list, with a way to keep it honest.
Questions, corrections or a business we missed: peakcitywebdesign@gmail.com.
Where the listings come from
The first listings were compiled in October 2026 from public business information - names, addresses, phone numbers, hours and websites - and then filtered for national chains, franchises, closed businesses and places outside the three towns. We don't copy reviews, ratings or photos from anywhere.
Owners can update, claim or remove a listing at any time through the owners page. Most fixes go live within two business days.
What we keep about you
When you like a business we keep your first name, last initial, town, optional note and the date. Your email address is used to send the confirmation link and is stored only as a one-way fingerprint, so the same address can't like a business twice. We never show it, sell it or add it to a mailing list.
To change or take back a like, sign in to My Likes with the email you used.