{"id":1798,"slug":"capability-structured-queryable-data","title":"Capability 1 — structured, queryable data: content stored as records with fields, types and relationships so it can be filtered, sorted, searched, and assembled on demand","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","smb-owner","candid-team"],"topics":["structured-content","customer-facing-tools","working-surface-capabilities"],"reference_body":"**Capability:** Content stored as records with attributes (fields, types, relationships) rather than as free-flowing prose — so it can be filtered, sorted, searched, and assembled on demand.\n\n**The defining contrast:** \"a paragraph describing our products\" vs \"a product table / database whose every row carries price, availability, and category.\"\n\n**Source:** Industry-consensus definitional framing — see also schema.org structured-data primitives ([[schema-org]]) and the structured-data mechanics overview ([[structured-data-mechanics]]).\n\n**Confidence:** Industry-consensus (definitional).\n\n**Best evidenced of the four capabilities** for findability / citability: it pairs natively with schema markup ([[google-structured-data-eligibility-not-ranking-correction]]) and with the GEO-paper body-text levers ([[geo-paper-aggarwal-kdd-2024-citations-stats-40pct-visibility]]).\n\n**Business types most served:** retailers (queryable product data), service businesses with multi-attribute offerings (filterable service catalogues), real-estate-adjacent (queryable listings), professional-services with case-study libraries.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** This is the deepest of the four capabilities and the one with the cleanest evidence base. The companion brief [[research-brief-searchable-structured-catalogue-working-tool-june-2026]] is essentially this capability expanded.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"research-brief-searchable-structured-catalogue-working-tool-june-2026","title":"Research brief: the searchable, structured catalogue as a working tool — when records-not-prose pays off (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"capability-interactive-functionality","title":"Capability 2 — interactive functionality: the visitor supplies input and the site returns a computed or looked-up result (calculator, quote, search, booking, configurator)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"capability-live-frequently-updated-data","title":"Capability 3 — live or frequently-updated data: content whose value depends on currency (availability, pricing, status, hours, inventory) refreshed on a cadence rather than written once","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"capability-account-state","title":"Capability 4 — account / state: the site remembers who the visitor is and what they have done (login, saved items, order history, progress) so returning visitors resume rather than restart","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"geo-paper-aggarwal-kdd-2024-citations-stats-40pct-visibility","title":"Aggarwal et al., \"GEO: Generative Engine Optimization\" (Princeton / Georgia Tech / Allen AI / IIT Delhi, KDD '24) — citations + quotations + statistics in visible text lift source visibility by >40% across queries","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"google-structured-data-eligibility-not-ranking-correction","title":"Google documentation — structured data makes pages ELIGIBLE for rich results, NOT a generic ranking boost (\"enables a feature to be present, does not guarantee that it will be present\")","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-website-as-working-surface-june-2026","title":"Research brief: the website as a working surface of the business — four capabilities, AI-citation decoupling, freshness as a real signal (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"working-surface-boundary-static-page-with-contact-form-does-not-qualify","title":"Boundary: a static page with a contact form (or \"occasional email trigger\") exhibits NONE of the four working-surface capabilities","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-most-businesses-need-at-least-one-of-four-not-all-four","title":"R1 — Most businesses benefit from AT LEAST ONE of the four working-surface capabilities, NOT all four; match the capability to acquisition / service mode","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-match-capability-to-business-type","title":"R7 — Match the working-surface capability to the business type: booking + live availability for trades, calculator / assessment for consulting, queryable products + account for retail","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:17.612Z","updated_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:17.612Z"}