Do I need hreflang x-default and can I've multiple hreflang point to same URL?

Question

Based on the Google info about hreflang, I came up with this but I've the en and default point to same URL instead of having another en/. Will that be fine? I don't want to create another folder as it require additional maintenance.

Basically, the default and main site is in English. If user needs to see the other language they just go to extra folder zh-*.

<link rel=”alternate” href=”http://example.com” hreflang=”en”>

<link rel=”alternate” href=”http://example.com/zh-hant” hreflang=”zh-Hant”>

<link rel=”alternate” href=”http://example.com/zh-hanz” hreflang=”zh-Hans”>

<link rel=”alternate” href=”http://example.com” hreflang=”x-default”>

Also is it okay I make it short in the URL to have zh-hant to cht and zh-hans to chs?

Answer 1

If English is default, you don't need to state English alternative. Only default is enough.

For the URLs, it's up to you. You can do whatever you like.