The AdSense Locked Widget Hack: Part 8 — WordsByEkta🌿
Article 8: The AdSense Widget Hack — How to Fix the "Internal Error" Blocking Your SEO
You fix the Canonical Tag, click save, and get this instead:
It feels like the "Ghost in the Machine" is actively stopping you from fixing your blog. Today, we’re going to delete those ghosts—specifically AdSense1 and AdSense2—to clear the path for your SEO updates.
1. Why Can’t I Just Delete This in "Layout"?
This is the most frustrating part for bloggers. If you go to the Blogger Layout tab and try to click "Edit" on an AdSense gadget, you will often find that the "Remove" button is missing. Blogger "locks" these widgets into the template.
Because you can't delete them the normal way, they stay hidden in the background, causing internal errors that block you from saving any new code. The only way to remove them safely is to go through the back door of your HTML.
Tip: Always make a backup of your theme before editing.
Quick backup tip: In Theme → Edit HTML, click the "Backup/Restore" button at the top right, then download your theme.
2. The Step-by-Step "Code Clean-Up"
We are going to find and remove the corrupted code blocks. This won't delete your articles; it simply clears out broken placeholders.
Step 1: Open the HTML Editor
Go to Blogger Dashboard → Theme. Click the arrow next to Customize → Edit HTML.
Step 2: Find and Delete the Villains
Click inside the code editor and press Ctrl + F (or Cmd + F). Search for AdSense1. Carefully highlight and delete the entire block of code from start to finish:
...all the code in between...
</b:widget>
Repeat the search for AdSense2. Carefully highlight and delete the entire block of code from start to finish:
...all the code in between...
</b:widget>
This is often hidden in the sidebar or footer. Delete the entire <b:widget> block for AdSense2 as well.
Step 3: Save (The Moment of Truth)
Click the floppy disk icon in the top right to save your theme. With the broken widgets gone, Blogger should finally allow you to save your theme HTML without errors.
3. Will This Affect My Future AdSense?
No! Many bloggers worry about this. Removing a "broken" widget placeholder does not hurt your chances of being approved for AdSense later. In fact, fixing technical errors makes your blog healthier. When you are ready for ads, you can simply add a fresh widget back to your layout—no coding needed.
4. Verify the Fix
- Refresh your blog to ensure the layout still looks correct.
- Return to Article 5. If you previously only removed AdSense widgets and did not add the Canonical Tag, now add the Canonical Tag correctly under the <head> tag and save it. It should save without errors this time.
- In Google Search Console, click Verify Fix for any redirect errors.
- Confirm: Your main .html link should now be the Google-selected canonical.
5. Common Mistakes to Avoid
The most common mistake bloggers make during this process is deleting too much. When you search for AdSense1 in the HTML editor, you might see the widget ID mentioned in multiple places — inside a conditional tag, inside a section wrapper, or as part of a larger block. Delete only the complete <b:widget> block that contains the AdSense ID. Do not delete surrounding section tags or layout wrappers.
The second mistake is skipping the backup step. Blogger's HTML editor does not have an undo history beyond a single session. If you close the browser after making a bad edit, that change is permanent. The backup takes thirty seconds and has saved many bloggers from a very stressful hour of rebuilding their theme from scratch.
If after deleting both widgets you still see the same error on save, search for AdSense3 as well — some older Blogger themes have a third locked widget that is easy to miss.
✅ Tip for beginners: Always test your main .html URL after editing — do not check the mobile ?m=1 version. This avoids confusion and ensures your Canonical Tags work correctly.
WordsByEkta🌿 — The widget was not doing anything. It was just sitting there, locked, blocking every save. Sometimes the thing stopping you from moving forward is not a content problem at all. It is a broken placeholder that nobody warned you about.
Everything I Learned — So You Don't Have To Figure It Out Alone
The technical mistakes I made in year one — the full HTML inside Blogger, the missing meta descriptions, the duplicate H1 tags, the links closing articles — I have written all of it down. Every fix. Every discovery. Every hour of confused trial and error turned into a clear guide.
🌿 The WordsByEkta Blogger Technical Series
- Blogger is Underrated & I'm Rooting for It: Part 1
- How to Set Up Your Blogger About Me Page: Part 2
- Google Search Console for Bloggers: Part 3
- How to Request Indexing in GSC: Part 4
- Internal Linking for Fast Indexing: Part 5
- Why Isn't My Blog Indexing?: Part 6
- Canonical Tag Fix for Blogger: Part 7
- The AdSense Locked Widget Hack: Part 8
- Use Pingomatic for Faster Indexing: Part 9
- Decoding GSC Reports: Part 10
- Get Traffic from Bing and Yahoo: Part 11
- The AdSense Checklist: Part 12
- Auto Submit Blogger Posts to Bing: Part 13
- Custom Contact Form for Blogger: Part 14
- Extract Blog Post URLs from Sitemap: Part 15
- Open Links in New Tab Blogger: Part 16
- Blogger HTML Mode SEO Mistakes: Part 17
- Google Takeout Blogger Not Working: Part 18
- Google Indexing API for Blogger Using Python OAuth2: Part 19
- Is Blogger Worth It Nowadays?: Part 20
- Blogger Mobile HTML Editor Trick for Full Code Copy: Part 21
- Claim Blogger Site on Pinterest (No Custom Domain): Part 22
- Follow.it Email Subscriptions Setup on Blogger: Part 23
- How to Exclude Your Own Visits from GA4 Analytics: Part 24
- Auto Update All Blogger Posts Using Python and Blogger API: Part 25
- My Blog Passed 118/118 AdSense Checks: Part 26
- Ad Networks for Blogger Besides AdSense: Part 27
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