International targeting

[MTBE]

• I submitted each language URL as a separated website to google webmasters,

• I've submitted Hreflang sitemap which has language codes only(without countries codes)

• each page in my website has hreflang language and country code.

Should i use international target option for each language to target the countries? will that hurt the language targeting? or I have to leave international targeting option unchecked for each language?

My Goal to target by languages, not countries.

[Joe_Stoffel]

If you are only targeting different languages (not targeting a specific region) you should not use the international targeting feature in Google Search Console. You also should not include country codes in the hreflang tags, you will want to remove those.

Also, it is best practice to only use hreflang tags OR an hreflang sitemap, it is not recommended that you use both due to redundancy [source].

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"There is no need to use multiple methods for hreflang implementation. Google recommends against it, since it would be redundant. You certainly can use both methods, and there is no clear advantage of one method over the other. Here are some considerations for when you are deciding whether to use the xml sitemaps or page tagging methods:

• Hreflang xml sitemaps can be difficult to create and update. You can use online tools or create it in Excel, but it is difficult to automate the process. If you have xml sitemaps that your CMS updates for you automatically, it would be better to continue to use those rather than create separate, static hreflang xml sitemaps.
• Page tagging leads to code bloat, especially when you are targeting several countries/languages. That can mean an additional 10+ lines of code to each geo-targeted page.
• Some content management systems, such as WordPress and Drupal, offer automatic hreflang page tagging solutions."

https://www.semrush.com/blog/7-common-hreflang-mistakes-and-how-to-fix-them/

[MTBE]

Thanks for your reply, if choose to use hreflang Sitemap, Should i include X-default hreflang ?

[Joe_Stoffel]

You're welcome. You do not want to include hreflang="x-default" tags for the specific language pages (whether in the sitemap or the code). You only want to include the x-default tag on non-language specific 'default' pages (for example, a default page that prompts the user to select a language or country).

Here is a description from Google on their use of this particular tag: "The new x-default hreflang attribute value signals to our algorithms that this page doesn’t target any specific language or locale and is the default page when no other page is better suited." [Source]