The personal story of building around.md from scratch — from the first version to 4,630+ organic clicks in 90 days. And how that experience led to founding Dricomm — the agency that builds websites that actually bring in customers.
# The around.md Story: How an Idea Became a Business — and Why I Now Build Websites for Others Too
A few months ago I asked myself a simple question: why doesn't Moldova have a proper site where you can quickly find a place to go — without endless scrolling through social media groups and articles that are five years out of date?
There was no answer. So I decided to build one myself.
I started building around.md alone — no team, no funding, no plan on paper. Just Next.js, Supabase, and the idea that places in Moldova deserved a real digital storefront. Restaurants, cafes, spas, wineries, parks — all in one place, with real photos, prices, and filters that actually help you decide where to go.
The first version was rough. The second was a bit better. By the third, I understood the key thing: a beautiful website is only half the job. If it doesn't show up on Google, it's just a pretty folder on a hard drive — not a business.
I started with what most people skip: SEO from day one. Structured data, proper headings, multiple languages (Russian, Romanian, English), fast load times, internal links between articles and places. Not as an afterthought bolted on after launch — but as part of the architecture from the very first line of code.
After 90 days I opened Google Search Console and could barely believe the numbers: 4,630+ organic clicks, 373,000+ impressions, traffic growth of +1,100% compared to the previous period, and the average position climbing from 30+ to 8.2. The numbers are verified directly in Search Console — not a marketing line, but real data over three months.
Take a look at the around.md catalog →
At some point I started getting messages from owners of places listed in the catalog. Cafes, spas, restaurants — many of them either had no website at all, or had a brochure-style page built five years ago and forgotten ever since. People only found them through my catalog — they had no digital presence of their own.
And that's when it hit me: what I had built for around.md — a methodical approach to speed, SEO, and real results — was exactly what hundreds of local businesses needed. Not just a pretty website. A website that actually brings in customers.
I started applying the same approach for others — for restaurants, spas, clubs, wineries, and any business that needs a website that actually works, not just exists. Dricomm is the team that builds landing pages, MVPs, online stores, and SaaS products on the same stack (Next.js, modern architecture) with SEO built in from day one, not glued on afterward.
The difference is simple: most websites look fine and bring in zero customers. Freelancers are cheaper but disappear after delivery. Big agencies are slow and impersonal. We do it differently — one process, from design all the way to your first customers from Google.
If your cafe, restaurant, spa, or club is already on around.md — that's great, people are finding you. But a catalog listing doesn't replace your own website working for your brand around the clock, collecting bookings, and ranking on its own, separate from any directory.
Want to know what's wrong with your current site — or whether you even need one? Request a free audit at dricomm.com → We'll show you in 24 hours exactly what's costing you customers online.
*The around.md story keeps going — and the same methodology that led to 4,630 clicks in 90 days now works for other businesses across Moldova too.*