Paid ads aside, this SERP is more relevant for the user, so it’s hard to argue with Google’s methodology.

Above the fold, the user sees:

The official website
Campus directory
Student portal
Big Huge Map
Bus Route
Directions
User Reviews

SEOBook has a nice breakdown of this trend in serps

Some people like to talk algorithms until they’re blue in the face. Most of the time they don’t actually do any work or make any money. Analysis paralysis.

Anyhow, I’ve found very few articles that do a good job of explaining this concept and even fewer with real world examples. This one is an exception to that rule.

What does this have to do with PPC?

I’m finding, in the last 90 days or so, that on page optimization is weighted more and more heavily after the initial 7-10 days of honeymoon once you launch a campaign. In short, Google gives almost everyone a fair shot for the first 48 hours. (it’s not always the case, but it is a lot of the time) In my tests I can get great/ok QS for any niche. Period. You name the keyword. All with domain/url customization, 100% borrowed content and simpleton pages, including affiliate links. However, after 5 days to a week unless I do something with those pages the great/ok QS will start to slide, slowly at first and then rapidly.

There are so many variables to this, and for every person who agrees with me on this, I’ll find 5 that have different experiences. The concept, however, is that you need to build out and test your personal ‘matrix’ of content organization. Find what works, build your little map, and stash it away. PPC and SEO are almost completely blurred to me now. They are one entity, and you need to work both at the same time. The good news is that if you’re building value for one, it’s working for the other as well.

Read that article, and understand it, it will apply to PPC just as it does SEO.