Mechanism summary — structured catalogues expose attributes as data; prose/PDF/images lock them in a format no filter can reach

Claim (synthesis): A structured catalogue is a body of records (products OR any structured knowledge) in which each item is described by defined, independent attributes. Because the attributes are exposed as data rather than buried in prose or pixels, the catalogue can be (a) queried and filtered by visitors via faceted search, and (b) read by machines — search engines, AI answer engines, and downstream tools. The same content rendered as prose or a PDF is not query-eligible and is not individually indexable per record.

Source: Synthesis of USPTO Patent 8,700,594 — structured data is "searchable by data type"; unstructured data (bitmaps, audio, text docs) is not, Structured vs unstructured data — Integrate.io / MongoDB definition: predefined schema, every record consistent, sorting/filtering/querying straightforward, Google Search Central — structured data labels each individual element so users can search by ingredient, calorie count, cook time.

Confidence: Industry-consensus (combining primary-source definitions with primary-source search-engine documentation).

Why this matters for Candid: The mechanism statement we point clients at when explaining why records-not-prose is not a stylistic preference but a functional one. Anchors R3 — One indexable page per record (distinct URL per item / variant) — per Google's merchant-listing guidance and the AI-citation framing in AI-citation eligibility via structured records — DIRECTIONAL; vendor-blog driven, Google's own position is "not a direct ranking factor".