Author: Comunicació

L’Orgullosa’s got the dot!

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L’Orgullosa gets Barcelona celebrating between now and the end of June, in an event which also conveys a message. As a pioneering city and a leader in LGBTI struggles, the programme has been put together with the intention of bringing the reality of LGBTI groups closer to everybody in Barcelona. The programme can be found on the website orgullosa.barcelona.

Various city museums such as the MACBA, the MNAC, the Picasso Museum and the Maritime Museum are offering activities to reflect on LGBTI matters through different visions of their collections, guided tours and other specific projects. Elsewhere, city libraries and community centres are organising workshops, exhibitions, book presentations, talks, theatre shows and film screenings to give visibility to the plurality of visions of this collective. A series of round tables is also planned at the Barcelona LGBTI Centre on 30 June, to rethink museums from a queer point of view.

L’Orgullosa culminates with a grand musical gala for everybody, to be held at the Olympic Ring in Montjuïc on 28 June and featuring a line-up which will have everybody dancing, travelling and defending LGBTI rights.

An explosion of colour and symbolism

The poster for L’Orgullosa was created by the illustrator Javier Navarro, better known as El Dios de los Tres, with text by Javier Alcaraz. The design is full of LGBTI motifs and references to Barcelona, such as the cat sculpture in El Raval, one of the freshest and most effervescent of the city’s queer spots.

If you would like a hard copy of the poster, get along to the Sala Ciutat, at Carrer de la Ciutat, 2, or download it in digital format from the website orgullosa.barcelona.

The .barcelona domain fosters culture

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Barcelona is a global leader in culture. Along with Madrid, the city is the national culture and science capital for the performing arts, theatre, urban culture, music and gastronomy. Culture is one of the main reasons why every year Barcelona attracts people from all over the world.

This is why cultural institutions and stakeholders in the city use the .barcelona for their websites. Being linked with the Barcelona brand in the realm of culture generates opportunities within the city and elsewhere.

Many cultural institutions use a .barcelona domain. Here are some of them:

  • La Model. The former prison which has been part of Barcelona’s contemporary history since 1904. As the name suggests, the prison had to act as a model in terms of the treatment of inmates and ended up symbolising repression in the city. The complex has now embarked on a process to become a leading space for culture in the Esquerra de l’Eixample neighbourhood. 
  • OFFF Barcelona. A meeting point for design talents from around the world, this international festival for digital creativity, art and design was held at the Disseny Hub Barcelona from 5 to 7 May 2022.
  • Urban Art Barcelona. This open platform for artists producing all types of street art puts the city at the forefront for all artistic trends revolutionising the new paradigms of urban art. The platform organises artistic events and showcases artists and their work.
  • FAD. Also based at the Disseny Hub Barcelona, Fostering Arts and Design is a non-profit organisation of professionals and companies linked to design. Cristina Gosálvez, head of communications with FAD, opts to link the brand with the city: “With both our social media and our domain we’ve chosen to link ourselves with Barcelona to set ourselves apart from other international organisations”.
  • Jazz Barcelona. And lastly, an example of how the world of culture and the Barcelona brand do wonders when they work together. This is the case with the traditional Barcelona Jazz Festival. In the words of Agustín Borlán, from The Project, the company which organises the festival: “The advantages of having a .barcelona domain are obvious, from directly linking the festival and the city to the realm of publicity. Barcelona is jazz during the festival, so nothing beats jazz.barcelona for getting the message across”.

Why doesn’t my website show up in Google?

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If you search for your website and it doesn’t appear in the first page of results in Google, the chances are that potential clients won’t find you. But don’t fret, there’s a solution. Here’s how to do it.

Patience and SEO

If you only recently published your website, you’re going to have to be patient. The newest sites don’t tend to get ranked instantly on Google. It’s likely you’ll have to click through the pages with Google search results to find your website. Bear in mind that there’s content which is similar to yours on the internet, dating back further and which people have purposefully worked on to position it.

But keep your chin up, by following a series of steps you can do it too. The first thing you need to know is that your web is listed in the Google index. To check this, access Google and search for site:elteudomini.barcelona (instead of elteudomini.barcelona type the name of your own domain).

If no results show up it means that Google doesn’t know that your website exists. In this case you need to find out why it is not listed. One way of checking is to register your domain with Google Search Console.

If you find some results, you’re on the right track and Google knows your site exists. In this case you will need to work on your SEO to improve the position of your site and gain visibility.

Finding the keywords you need

If you want your customers to find you on Google you need to speak the same language. Perhaps you’re using words that are too technical or too generic for the texts on your website. The more generic your keywords are, the more difficult it will be to position your site, as you’ll be competing with a lot of others. A .barcelona domain will help you achieve a better position in searches using the name of your city as a keyword and on the map.

Think about who your audience is. For instance, if your business is travel, instead of using travel as a key word you could use family travel, weekend getaways, group travel, travelling with kids and so on.

If you’re unsure of the words your customers use for Google searches, you can carry out a keyword study. We suggest you start by brainstorming words and phrases you think they might use in a search. Bear in mind:

  • Products and services: what customers look for when they want to purchase, for instance, travel Barcelona.
  • Problems customers have: what they look for to solve these, for instance, how to book a pet-friendly hotel in Barcelona.
  • Desired results: when they know what they’re looking for, for instance, booking a pet-friendly hotel in Barcelona.
  • Characteristics: when they search for details on your products, for instance, pet-friendly hotel Barcelona.

Once you’ve got a list of possible keywords and phrases, you can find out how frequently people search for them on Google and what competition you’re facing. Various SEO tools can help you find this information. One of the most widely used is the Google Ads keyword planner.

In the ‘Ideas’ section for keywords you can type some of the words or phrases from your list to see the monthly average number of searches for each of them and how competitive they are (high, medium or low). The tool also suggests related phrases which could be used.

All you need to do to use this tool is configure a free account with Google Ads.

Each keyword in its place

Once you’ve identified the keywords and phrases for your website, you need to include them in the right place to optimise your website and improve your position in Google searches.

Think about which keywords are best suited to each of the pages on your website. You probably won’t put the same ones on the home page as you will on a page for a specific page or blog entry. Each page has different information which will fit in better with the keywords on the list you’re working with.

Once you’ve chosen them, you’ll need to include them in various places:

  • Title: SEO experts affirm this is the most important place when it comes to adding a keyword. Even though you don’t see it directly when accessing content on a site, it is the word that gets highlighted in search results.
  • Meta description: This information is not in view when you visit a website, but it is when you do a search. It is usually the same text which appears beneath the title when you do a search.
  • Heading and subtitles: When we edit pages we find HTML tags which go from H1 to H6. These heading tags are for titles within the content which tend to appear highlighted within the text. Many visits will only focus on these parts, so it’s important they are well-written and highlight the words we want to draw attention to.
  • Links within the website: In addition to external links which direct users to your page (such as those on social media), you can also include links from an internal page to another within your website. Instead of linking these with generic texts such as “click here” or “more information”, use texts with a description for the link.

A page for each section

If you’re starting out, perhaps you’ve put all the information into a single page within your website. We suggest you create a page for each of the sections of your website. Google, or any other search engine, prefers each page to have specific content.

This way you can put your keywords to good use, explain each section in detail, add photos, videos and work your links well too.

All these steps will help you improve your position on Google, and as we said at the beginning, patience, to give Google time to index all the information and changes on your website and get it higher up in search results.

Model Barcelona Architectures Festival’s got the dot!

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The first edition of the Model Barcelona Architectures Festival is set to turn the city into an experimental lab from 5 to 15 May, the goal being to rethink urban environments and build new perceptions to move towards the cities of the future. The recently launched website model.barcelona offers full information on the festival.

The first edition of the Model Barcelona Architectures Festival gets under way with the theme of “Regrowth”, the aim being to explore new perspectives, lines of thought and values that will help refocus the growth of the city.

The ten-day event sees the city host a global dialogue on the conflicts, challenges and opportunities that converge in urban environments, with international experts offering their vision of the cities of the future.

Over a hundred activities

Jointly organised by Barcelona City Council and the Architects’ Association of Catalonia (COAC), the festival is to offer a series of debates in iconic spaces in Barcelona, as well as a tribute to Oriol Bohigas at the Ateneu Barcelonès and over a hundred activities organised by independent bodies. These include open days, workshops for people of all ages, physical installations and augmented reality, communal meals, routes, debates, exhibitions, book fairs and even a film cycle.

Participants in the Model festival include key figures in architecture, philosophy and anthropology, along with emerging thinkers. Notable names include Rotor, Carolyn Steel, Rafael Moneo and Carme Pinós.

This first edition of the festival represents a first major event ahead of the city becoming the UIA-UNESCO Word Capital of Architecture 2026.

The .barcelona domain helps you stand out on Google Maps

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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

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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.

The .barcelona domain turns six with 5,000 active domains

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Since opening up its public register in March 2016, the .barcelona domain has generated a volume of active domains comparable to other large cities. With 5,228 domains in all, the number of domains per inhabitant puts .barcelona on a par with other city domains such as .paris, .london and .tokyo.

Besides the overall figures, the .barcelona domain stands out from the rest of geoTLDs for its permeability in Barcelona’s society. The domain reflects the city’s social and commercial make-up and is used across multiple sectors.

Browsing the different types of .barcelona domains gives us a first-hand look at the city’s most typical and iconic sectors. Staring with cultural domains such as those used by the MACBA or Park Güell, and moving onto gastronomic ones such as the one for La Boqueria, in just a few clicks we can get a feel for the city.

We can also find .barcelona domains relating to sports, such as the ones for the firefighters’ run or La Mercè, which represent the city so well. There are domains for shopping too, such as the recently launched BCNMarket, the city’s official online shop.

The Catalan capital has an exceptional showcase on the internet thanks to the .barcelona domain, which brings together the diversity of activities and services offered by the city.

The domain turned six on 21 March, celebrating the opening of the domain register to all projects wishing to sign up to it. Even so, the domain officially started life in July 2015, when it started being used for municipal projects. A year later came the formal contact with the ICANN, the main regulating body for this sector.

Differences between a registration company and a domain re-seller

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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.

“boqueria.barcelona is our market’s showcase to the world”

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The founding stone of the Mercat de Sant Josep was laid on 19 March 1840, yet the history of this market, popularly known as La Boqueria, dates back to the 13th century. There are currently over 200 establishments opening daily at the market, offering local people and visitors a unique range of gastronomy and culture in the city. We spoke to Òscar Ubide i Marcet, the manager at the market, and asked him to explain its importance for the city and its identification with the .barcelona domain.

-The Mercat de la Boqueria is not just any market. How does your location in the city and the type of people who go to the market have an impact?

Its location halfway down La Rambla means lots of tourists go to the market. There’s a mix of customers, with restauranteurs, locals and people from other places too.

-The history of the market dates back centuries. How important is it for the market to maintain this legacy and to show it to the world?

It’s very important in two ways. On the one hand, in maintaining a structure, often archaic, which continues to offer customers fresh produce a thousand years on. On the other hand, in terms of visitors, to show them a space which in many cases is older than their countries. This is very powerful.

-Activities at the market also go beyond food. What values do the market’s cultural activities bring and how relevant are they for La Boqueria?

For us it’s an obligation to go beyond the action of buying and selling. We have always had strong ties with the neighbourhood, the city and the country, and this is why the market must offer culture, nutrition, technology and all the things linked to food that we can show.

-How important is it for the Mercat de la Boqueria to have a website? For instance, when it comes to informing people about the activities held there?

It’s our showcase to the world. Many people use the site to check what stalls there are and where to find them, while others check the agenda to see what activities we offer there.

-How does the market’s website help establish a closer relationship with local people in Ciutat Vella?

Well precisely that, by people identifying stalls and their contact details and checking activities.

-Boqueria and Barcelona are two very closely linked concepts. How important is it for the Mercat de la Boqueria to be identified through the .barcelona domain?

The moment the domain appeared, we thought it was the one which connected with the market better than other existing domains, and that it strengthened our identity and our image. Whenever we give the domain to others it comes as a positive surprise to them.

-The .barcelona domain represents a map of opportunities in gastronomy, culture, commerce and sports for iconic organisations and projects in Barcelona. How does this community map of Barcelona help the Mercat de la Boqueria?

We believe that as a market and an iconic city facility, we are doing our little bit to strengthen the domain and what it represents, the strength and personality of our city.

Barcelona with Ukraine

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Given the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and the resulting social emergency, Barcelona has made preparations to provide shelter and guarantee the rights of refugees in the city. The website ciutatrefugi.barcelona offers full information for refugees and for people wishing to help out.

This .barcelona website will be regularly updated to respond to the social emergency resulting from the conflict in Ukraine.

The site includes resources for refugees arriving in the city and facilitates information for members of the public wishing to collaborate or offer support for those affected by the conflict.

The “Barcelona, Refuge City” project was set up in September 2015 to prepare the city to provide shelter, assistance and necessary services to guarantee the rights of refugees, as well as to urge states to comply with the most basic rules on human rights.

More information: ciutatrefugi.barcelona