Tag: domain

The .barcelona domain helps you stand out on Google Maps

Posted on by Comunicació

A geographical domain such as .barcelona helps geolocate your project, allowing you to increase traffic to your website and improve your organic position in Google’s Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). All this makes a domain such as .barcelona the best option for naturally boosting your website’s presence on the internet.

Google studies show that 80% of internet users rely on search engines to obtain local results. Organic search results with Google actually display local results, and we should bear in mind that users tend to choose one of the options which comes up in the top positions. The best example of this is Google Maps. A good position on Google Maps results in a higher ranking in Google’s organic search results.

Consequently, using a local geographical domain such as .barcelona plays a key role in facilitating access for future clients. In short, thanks to a domain such as .barcelona:

  • It’s easier to find you
  • It’s easier to remember your name
  • It’s easier to attract new visitors
  • It’s easier to sell your end product
  • Your organic positioning will improve

Check if your domain is available: domini.barcelona/registra/

The .barcelona domain as a loudhailer for local gastronomy

Posted on by Comunicació

Barcelona is a global leader in gastronomy and has its own identity in this sphere. One of the things which attracts tourists to the city every year is its wide array of restaurants, the variety on offer and the options for all budgets and tastes, something the city’s restaurateurs are well aware of.

Making use of a .barcelona website for a restaurant in the city offers a loudhailer and a business opportunity: the value of the Barcelona brand enjoys worldwide renown.

This is why more and more gastronomy businesses are choosing the .barcelona domain to represent them on the internet. One example is the Bao Bar, where customers can enjoy these typical Asian sandwiches with a local touch: “We chose to be part of .barcelona because it’s very important for us to position ourselves geographically in our city”, affirms Irene Lopo, from the Bao Bar.

Other important gastronomy spaces in the city using the .barcelona domain include the Moka Restaurant, La Boqueria, the iconic Sol Soler in the Gràcia neighbourhood and the Pastisseria Brunells, one of the city’s oldest cake shops.

If you want to associate your business with the .barcelona brand, you can find full information here.

Differences between a registration company and a domain re-seller

Posted on by Comunicació

In the online world, a domain is the name we want people to use to find us on the internet, the one we put in the address field. It needs to be unique in the world, and that’s why it needs choosing carefully before anybody else can register it.

If we want to buy a domain, we need to do so through a registration company or a domain re-seller:

·       Registration companies are authorised by the ICANN to issue domain licences. This means they can create and sell domains themselves. Some provide domains to the general public and other sell domains wholesale to re-sellers.

·       Just like registration companies, internet domain re-sellers are companies which sell domains directly to end users. The only difference is that they cannot issue the domains themselves and must buy them beforehand from a registration company. Internet domains are a product and as such can be bought and sold, and re-sellers have permission to do this.

Re-sellers tend to purchase domains in bulk and registration companies apply discounts, giving them a profit margin. In addition, many re-sellers are not simply devoted to selling, but also offer additional services such as better customer service, web hosting and web design. These services mean clients prefer them to large registration companies, where they can only buy the domain name.

Where can I register a .barcelona domain?

All you need to do to register a .barcelona domain is to click here, where you will find registration companies and re-sellers from which you can choose the option which best adapts to your domain.

Domain, website and email: how they are similar and how they differ

Posted on by Comunicació

When we talk about the internet there are some related concepts which can cause confusion between them. While plenty of people know what a domain is, some might not realise that registering one does not give you a website. People may also confuse a URL address with an email address.

What is a domain?

A domain name is simply the name we choose for our website. Technically, it is a ‘translation’ using words that are easy to remember and which correspond to an IP address where all the information on our website is hosted. This IP address is a very long unique number, which we essentially substitute with the domain name. Consequently, the domain name must also be the only one of its kind in the world. An example of a domain would be mercat.barcelona.

Does registering a domain mean we have a website?

No. If we register a domain, we have only registered what we want to call ourselves on the network (domain name). If we want a website, we must rent space where it will be housed. To do this we need to acquire space on the server where we will save all the files that make up our website. We do this through a web hosting company.

So, what is the difference between a domain and a website?

The domain is the name we write in the browser, while the website is the page itself. In other words, all the information it contains: files, texts and images.

And email?

An email address is the address we use to send and receive emails, from a webmail or an email management programme such as Outlook. This service is provided from an email server. The email address very often includes the domain name, as most web servers offer the option of registering email addresses too. This way we can manage everything from the same domain management panel.

An email address differs from a website address as it has the symbol @ in the middle. This separates the name of the recipient from the email domain. For instance, if our domain is mercat.barcelona, the email address could be info@mercat.barcelona. We can register as many email addresses as we wish or as many as our server allows.

Domains and subdomains: what they are and how they differ

Posted on by Comunicació

Internet jargon includes some concepts which are very similar and can cause confusion when it comes to defining them. Two of these are domain and subdomain. What defines them and where do they come into the picture?

We are already familiar with the domain, which is the name we are known by online, a name which is easy to remember and easy to write, associated with a physical internet IP address where our page is housed. A subdomain is basically a domain which forms part of a larger one.

Contrary to what one might think, a subdomain is not a subsection of our domain. For instance, if the domain name is domain.barcelona, the subdomain would not be domain.barcelona/actualitat. That would be a page within a domain. A subdomain would be something like faqs.domain.barcelona.

A subdomain is a new independent website, but without the need to create another domain. It can have its own subsections and function on its own.

Why create a subdomain?

There are various advantages to creating a subdomain. The first is that different sections can be organised completely independently of the website content published on the main domain. This is the main purpose of a subdomain: to separate the different sections of a website and organise content more effectively.

Another reason is to avoid loading your main domain up with information. In practice it is another domain with its own images, extensions and pages. This makes browsing quicker.

Finally, another notable advantage is that you won’t have to pay for another domain. Many registration companies include unlimited subdomains in the price of the domain.

How do I create a subdomain?

First of all, you need to think about the name you want to give it. The shorter and more descriptive it is, the better. For instance, if it is to host an online store, it is best to call it shop.domain.barcelona, so users can see where they are straight away.

Creating a subdomain is not complicated. On the control panel offered by the registration company for your domain there should be a relatively simple option allowing you to create one. Either way, don’t hesitate to check with the technical department and enjoy the advantages of having a subdomain for your .barcelona.

How to protect your brand on the internet

Posted on by Comunicació

Being present on the internet is vital when it comes to opening a business, whether we’re giving information on our products and services, explaining who we are or even selling online. Because of this, as soon as we set our minds on starting a project, we need to think about registering the domain we will use as our name on the internet. This is because the domain name will be the one people know us by online. These names are globally unique and there can be no duplicates. Users identify the domain with the business and/or products and services being offered. Because of this it’s essential to choose a good domain name which matches each profile. If you’re unsure where to begin, here are some tips to help you get started.

What many people are unaware of, is that while we might have a registered business name, this does not guarantee the right to use that same name online. This makes it very important to check first to see if the name is available, in other words that nobody else has taken it, and to register it in our company’s name as soon as possible.

It’s also very important to bear in mind the date that the domain registration period expires, as if we don’t renew it within a few days the domain will become available again and anyone could register it.

When it comes to protecting a brand on the internet, it is common to register other domains which are similar, or which have other terminations. This way we avoid many searches taking users to other websites, and we prevent other parties from registering them in a bid to harm our brand. For instance, if our website is lamevabotiga.barcelona, the best way to protect our brand would be to register labotiga.barcelona or latevabotiga.barcelona.

This might initially seem an unnecessary investment, as perhaps we only use one or two of the domains we register, but it is a minor cost compared to the headaches it could save us. Shielding our internet brand is as important or even more important than physically registering it.

What’s the difference between an https domain and an http one?

Posted on by Comunicació

When you browse the internet you’ve probably noticed that some addresses start with http and others with https. This single extra letter means more than it might seem, as it is used to distinguish between two communication protocols.

What’s http?

Firstly, we should define http. The letters stand for HyperText Transfer Protocol. Without going into a lengthy technical explanation, this is the most common method of exchanging information online and is used for our browser to communicate with the server which is hosting the information we’re looking at.

Http is a stateless protocol, as it doesn’t house information and handles each information request as an independent transaction, without taking into account previous requests. For instance, http does not take into account something as important as cookies, which we find on practically all websites and which are stored as a way of recognising the previous activity of the browser.

Even though there have been various versions of the http protocol, the most commonly used continues to be http/1.1, from June 1999. The World Wide Web has changed a lot since then. For example, financial transactions are now the order of the day, meaning that the http communication protocol which was safe twenty years ago no longer provides sufficient protection for information sent online.

What’s https?

The need for greater security in the exchange of information led to the creation of https (HyperText Tranfser Protocol Secure). The final ‘S’ says it all here, as https is the secure version of http.

This new communication protocol combines the HHTP and SSL/TS protocols so that the transmission of data between the end user and the client is more secure. To achieve this, the protocol uses an encrypted connection meaning that the information is practically undecipherable to a third party.

Difference between http and https

Https was initially geared towards online commerce and banking but is gradually becoming a standard protocol for the internet.

Why is https gaining in popularity? Basically, because while information on a website with http can easily be intercepted by a user with bad intentions, this is much more complicated with an https website.

Nearly all websites today have a contact form, where users can fill in their personal details. This alone makes an https website worthwhile. Another benefit is that browsers place high value on security and are quick to warn you if the website you’re visiting is not safe. Consequently, if you have an http site it’s going to get fewer users over time, or fewer who feel comfortable visiting it.

How do I change my http website to https?

To switch a site from http to https all you need is an SSL certificate. You can request it from your hosting company, or if your site is designed with a website builder such as WordPress or Prestashop you can download the corresponding plug-ins.

This small gesture will make your .barcelona website more secure and also generate a sense of security among its visitors.

Cities that have got the dot: .stockholm

Posted on by Comunicació

We’re launching a new section at .barcelona looking at other cities with their own domain. One of the best known examples is Stockholm, which in just a few years has managed to make .stockholm the domain for all websites linked to the city council in the Swedish capital. A fine example of the use and implementation of a city domain.

We spoke about the .stockholm domain in an interview with Marcelle Abou Haidar Johansson, head of projects at the Department for Communication at Stockholm City Council.

Marcelle, what is your role within the .stockholm organisation?

Before becoming a project manager with the Department for Communication at Stockholm City Council, I worked with the domain register for the .se and .nu domains. Thanks to this prior knowledge, in 2016 I was asked to join the Department for Communication at the City Council to manage the project launch for the TLD .stockholm.

Since then I’ve been working to implement the TLD in network communications, as well as the updating and development of new websites for Stockholm City Council.

The .stockholm user profile is exclusively institutional, although it will gradually be opened up for other private users. What profiles do you think will be the most interested in using the domain?

As we had an “internal launch” with .stockholm only being used for the city’s organisation, we hoped this would give the TLD an identity status of belonging to Stockholm. As a result, I think the domain will be of more interest to businesses and organisations whose identity is strongly linked to the city of Stockholm.

Over these few years we’ve had various enquiries from small and medium-sized businesses in the city who wanted to be able to register a .stockholm domain. Judging by this, we think this will be the profile with the greatest interest in the domain.

What values for the city of Stockholm are the most recognisable for users of the domain?

Since we introduced the new .stockholm websites, the domain represents more advanced and modern technology which is better suited to users and to web accessibility. This comes in addition to a strong link with the city of Stockholm.

Can you explain the most characteristic success story for the .stockholm domain?

Personally, I love the work we’ve done with the main website for the city’s organisation. It’s a multi-site where various smaller sites converge both visually and technically. Each of these sites is for a specific service offered by the city. For instance, a nursery school (förskola in Swedish), a home for the elderly, business services etc. They all have their own .stockholm domain. This really helps with communication about a specific service. To use one of these examples, if we want people to enrol their children at a nursery school we direct them to förskola.stockholm. There we provide all the necessary information on how to enrol, along with everything else relating to that service.

This represents a change compared to the structure for our former website, where all the information was grouped together in the same place with a tree structure. That meant over 3,000 pages in the end, making it pretty difficult to find the information you were looking for. Even direct links were longer. The new format is much more direct and easier to understand.

What’s your go-to city domain and why?

The first two websites we created, förskola.stockholm (pre-school) and äldreomsorg.stockholm (elderly people), served as a way of testing the new structure and are the sites which citizens have been using the longest. Because of this we’re very fond of them, plus the fact they’re the most popular.

That said, my favourites are äldreomsorg.stockholm and motionera.stockholm. Firstly, because I worked personally on the conceptualisation and launch of both sites, but also because the result was a big improvement on the way users accessed the information before. They’re also very pleasing visually and the domains are spot on in what they communicate. This is one of the main reasons I love working at Stockholm City Council with the .stockholm domain.

How did you decide that the .stockholm domain would be exclusively for institutional use?

It started by chance. There are certain laws and regulations that prohibit the City Council from charging for or making any financial gain from a service unless this is decided on by the City Council itself or through one of its companies. As the application period for ownership of the .stockholm domain was shorter than the time it would take to make a decision over it, the team working on the .stockholm domain application at that time decided that it would only be put to institutional use.

Naturally, the plan was to open it up to the general public later. Even so, now that we’re using it this way it seems very natural to us and the best decision for the city of Stockholm.

How did the process go to switch all the council websites from .se to .stockholm?

The heaviest part of the work was to turn Stockholm.se into various smaller websites with .stockholm domains. This process was quite a challenge at many points. The biggest thing was the work prior to the change, considering that each municipal service is decentralised and most of them have their own communication staff and managers. In most cases, our central communications office came up against the fear of informing the rest of the municipal organisations that we wanted to change all the domains of one Sweden’s biggest websites.

Our website consultancy agency also had little knowledge of how to switch to a TLD that had never been used before. This meant they were also very cautious and reticent to start with.

But speaking to other people in the domain names sector, observing the experiences of other cities, regions and brands to see how they worked with their domains, helped us to draft an action plan for change.

The thing that concerned us most was losing traffic from search engines, which roughly accounted for 60% of all the traffic to the former website. In our preliminary research we reached the conclusion that the most important thing was to make sure that all our visitors would continue to find what they were looking for. Each of the pages from the old site were therefore assigned a new page and a new website. As we made an effort to eliminate unnecessary text and clean up the existing content, the result was that at times 10 or even 20 pages were redirected to a single page of the new website. We had 301 redirections from old links!

As we expected, in the first few months we dropped in terms of SEO, but later recovered. We also launched the mini independent websites one by one and linked them all together. The first two sites on pre-school and elderly people thus helped with later websites as they had achieved good positioning.

As a complement to this work, we’re changing other city domains (besides stockholm.se) to the new .stockholm. This work is still ongoing, but is simpler now as we have got past the heavier work at the outset.

Do people identify the .stockholm domain with Stockholm City Council? Do you think that’s a positive change?

I’d like to be able to say yes straight away, but I honestly think there are two types of people: those that take an interest and pay attention to domain names and those who simply want to reach the information they need. The former do look at the URL and identify .stockholm with the City Council. The latter probably haven’t even realised we’ve changed the domain, even if they use it every day. This group is bigger and perhaps the most important reason behind our good positioning in search engines, because without them they might not ever find us.

Generally, we see a very positive change and we’re very happy with the feedback we get from visitors to our websites.  All this is thanks to the work we’ve done with the website, working with our identity, brand profile, content, user testing, accessibility, SEO and more.

How to renew a domain

Posted on by Comunicació

People and businesses build their identity around their name and their values. The same applies online. Our domain name defines us and enables others to recognise us on the internet. Because of this, it’s very important to renew our domain rather than keep registering new ones. This also gives us control over our online brand and means we can be sure it won’t end up in the wrong hands. Keeping our domain name also means we can carry on benefitting from associated services such as email accounts.

But how do we renew a domain?

When the time comes to renew a domain, we should contact our domain registration company. To find out when our .barcelona domain expires, we can go to the user panel and check the expiry date. Once inside the panel, it is important to select the domain we wish to renew, as we may have registered more than one. Once we select the domain we wish to renew, we find the option ‘renew domain’. This is where can choose the duration of the registration period, which may be for one year or longer. The ICANN allows a maximum of ten days for registration. Next, we should confirm the data and pay the quota.

There is no need to wait until the last moment to renew. Even if there are weeks left before it expires, we can renew our .barcelona domain in advance without the registration period being affected. For instance, if the domain expires on 1 January 2022, the next expiry date will be 1 January 2023, regardless of when we renew. This means that if we have a discount code we can make the most of when we want to apply it, whatever the date is.

What happens if the expiry date comes and goes and I haven’t renewed the domain?

Our registration company will usually contact us when the registration period is due to expire. This varies depending on the registration company, but we may be contacted up to 30 days before the domain expires. If for some reason we do not see the reminders, we still have five days after the expiry date in which to renew the domain. After those five days a definitive deactivation process begins and within a few days we will have lost the domain.

This does not mean we lose our domain name forever, but rather that it becomes available again for anybody wishing the register it. Consequently, if we are lucky and nobody registers the domain, we can register it again through the usual new domain registration procedure.

This practice comes with an element of risk, and apart from the possibility of not being able to register it again and losing our digital identity, the renewal process is more straightforward than registering anew.

To avoid headaches, many registration companies offer the possibility of automatic renewals. This mean that unless we indicate otherwise, the registration company will renew our domain every year without our having to think about it.

Got your .barcelona?

Posted on by Comunicació

The .barcelona domain is open to all individuals, organisations, businesses and administrations with links to the city. Domains are now available at a unique price of 15 euros for any new registration, renewal or automatic renewal using one of the registration companies taking part in the special offer.

Anybody interested in a domain should check its availability, make sure it complies with the conditions of use, that there are no negative effects for third parties and that it can support content in any language.

Existing domains can be renewed at any time before the registration period ends, without having to wait until the renewal date. The registration company will give the option of automatic renewal and provide instructions on how to do so.

This promotion expires at 10 am on 31 May.

For any queries, please check the FAQs or contact domini.barcelona.