Welcome to the Q&A Forum

1.) I'd use option two: • http://example.com/en-ca/ - hreflang="en-CA" • http://example.com/fr-ca/ - hreflang="fr-CA" ... as it most closely resembles the structure of a double barreled hreflang tag. Some hreflangs only reference a location or a language, a double barreled hreflang references both. Since you're using double barreled hreflangs, it makes sense that your architecture should actually fit your own hreflang deployment If your hreflangs are deployed accurately, there's no reason to use the Search Console geo-targeting. In-fact, a lot of people find it overly constricting as it cuts off the tail-ends of the rough-edges of your traffic. Personally, I usually steer clear of it Hreflang structure basically comes from these two lists: Country codes Language codes The more closely your site structure mirrors that and the hreflang tag, the better 2.) Yes, single barreled hreflang deployment is possible: https://yoast.com/hreflang-ultimate-guide/ https://d.pr/i/tuJlYT.png (screenshot) Even Google show that this is possible: https://d.pr/i/HUJESr.png (screenshot) As you can see, it can even be mixed in with other types of hreflangs so that's cool. 3.) From that Google screenshot I just pasted, you can see it's in the header. No - do not add x-default as a hreflang to a URL which has already been assigned a language. In your situation you don't need x-default, ignore and don't use it