Wild cards have been in use for years as a way to re-direct errant search terms to the proper website or to return the right results that people are looking for.
The use of wild cards in your domain name takes care of mistyped domain names like such as
www.domain.com or www.domane.comWith the emphasis in education moving away from proper spelling, you need wild cards in order to capture your target audience. They catch any errant user by employing a splat (asterisk) to match characters. The wild card is automatically matched when the domain typed in does not exist and directs the inquiry back to your site.
Wild cards can also be used in meta-tagging to take care of misspelled search terms. For instance, someone may be looking for “affiliate programs” but type “afilate pogams” into the search engine. By using a splat in your meta-tags, search engines will apply the misspellings to your tags and direct the web surfer to your site.
Essentially, you can use any keyword in your third level domain. That is, your pages other than your main page will be able to be accessed whether or not a search term is misspelled or awkwardly phrased. A search phrase for “insurance nrth dokota” will return a link to your page about insurance in the state of North Dakota if you make use of wild cards and have a page about that subject.
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