Structured data is information arranged in named fields. A person can understand “a box of 50 decaf green tea bags”. Software benefits from separate labels for the product name, quantity, tea type and caffeine status.
Why a tea shop cares: labels are how software knows that "50" is the number of tea bags and not the price.
The labels make the information easier to compare. They do not make it true by themselves.
A tea example
For a product, the shop can record its name, identifier, pack size, price, currency and availability. A customer reads those facts on a page. Another system can receive values with explicit labels rather than guessing which number in a paragraph is the price.
The distinction matters for caffeine. “Green tea” describes a type of tea. “Decaffeinated” describes its caffeine status. A record needs both if it is to answer a request for decaf green tea accurately.
What are schema.org and JSON-LD?
Schema.org supplies a shared vocabulary, including a type called Product. Using familiar names for facts helps different systems interpret them. A shop can also maintain additional fields needed for its own search and recommendations; those are not automatically standard schema.org properties.
JSON is a text format that groups named values and lists. JSON-LD is a way to express linked data using JSON. It is one format used to put structured information into web pages. Markup means the extra instructions or labels included with content.
Google's introduction to structured data explains how it helps describe page content. The facts in a page's markup should match what the page tells its readers.
Is it different from an API?
Yes. Structured data describes how information is organised. An API describes how software can request information or use a service. An API response can contain structured data, and a normal web page can contain it too.
What should a shopper expect?
Clearer comparisons, the right pack attached to the right price, and an explicit answer when an attribute is unknown. A blank ingredient or allergy field should never become a confident “free from” claim.
Structured data does not guarantee a search appearance or an assistant recommendation. At teas.co.uk it supports a more basic aim: one authoritative source for the facts a person and a machine share. The complete payload describes how those facts can be returned together.
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