I swore to write about this topic after months of sleepless nights over issues with the Linkwithin widget. I hope this entry will help others who wish to get rid of this pesky application once and for all.
Linkwithin is "a blog widget that appears under each post, linking to related stories from your blog archive." Normally, it shows a list with 3-5 related blog titles linked to their respective addresses. If your blog post has pictures, the widget shows the thumbnail of the first picture and blog title of the said post.
It was a good working relationship with LinkWithin at the start. I installed the widget months ago, and it looked pretty on my old website. I liked the fact that as Linkwithin listed related topics from my blog archive, readers could just conveniently click away. Plus, it was free and ad-free; there was just a Linkwithin text at the bottom-right of the widget.
Ignorance is bliss.
One day, I published this blog post with pictures, and my Linkwithin widget picked it up right away. However, noticing how unattractive the photo which served as my post's thumbnail on Linkwithin, I decided to delete the original image from the actual post. Unfortunately, the unattractive photo was stuck on the widget. I tried to reinstall Linkwithin to no avail. I even sought help online and found this as a popular concern among Linkwithin users. I just ended up contacting Linkwithin team. In the meantime, I had no choice but live with this slight defacement of my site.
Several months passed, but I still didn't get any response from Linkwithin. By this time, I was also intending to change my blog's URL, keeping the site's template, layout and other contents unchanged. Unfortunately, I couldn't go through the entire process because of another issue with Linkwithin; it wouldn't update my old links with the new blog URL. Thus, all the Linkwithin links directed to inexistent posts. I tried to reinstall and later on remove it under the layout and template sections, but the widget still showed up on my site. Linkwithin's code was still embedded in the page source despite the fact that I already removed it from the layout and template sections. I have actually read over the internet a lot of complaints as regards this matter, and most of them could not fix it. Those few who found a solution for it received support from Linkwithin, but obviously, this was no longer an option for me.
Apparently, you can't edit your Blogger site's entire code under the layout and template sections. Therefore, when it's time to remove third-party applications like Linkwithin that secretly attach themselves to the uneditable part of your site's code, you just can't use the layout and template sections. You have to start your site from scratch, unless you have backed up your template prior to installing the Linkwithin widget.
Fortunately, I realized one way to go around this problem. Here are the steps to removing Linkwithin from your Blogger Site:
1. Back up template. Blog Page > Template > Back up / Restore > Download Full Template
2. Back up posts. Blog Page > Settings > Others > Export Blog > Download Blog
3. Take note of site's current layout, template and settings. This step will come in handy for Step 6.
4. Delete site. Blog Page > Settings > Others > Delete blog
5. Make a new blog. You may use the same Blog URL. Home > New Blog
6. Edit the new blog's current layout, template and settings.
7. Import posts. Blog Page > Settings > Others > Import Blog
8. Edit titles of posts in accordance with their old URLs. Fix symbols, eg. change (&apos) to (').
9. Publish all posts. Blog Page > Select all > Publish
10. Don't install Linkwithin ever again!
One word of caution is in relation to the information from your old site's stats section which cannot be backed up. Thus, information from your new site's stats section will start with zeroes. Personally, this is not a big issue as Blogger's stats section is not very informative and reliable. I actually use third-party applications of Topblogs, Sitemeter, and Statcounter where making a new site doesn't affect their previously recorded stats at all. However, this stat's section becomes important if you're using gadgets like "Popular Posts" that work based on the stats measured by Blogger.
Normally, Blogger will forever adopt the originally published post's title as the post's URL; subsequently changing a post's title will not affect the post's URL. Unfortunately, this D.I.Y. may result to broken links as some republished posts adopt new URLs. Therefore, if you're concerned about visitors finding broken URLs of your posts in search engines, here are some steps on how to change your posts' URLs:
1. Use your search engine to determine the problematic posts. Take note of their URLs. Remember the originally published titles become the URLs of your posts. Their URLs just don't use symbols except hyphen which represents space between words.
eg. Post title: L'Oréal Paris Hydrafresh Anti-Shine Icy Gel
Post URL:
2. If not yet published, change the post's title in accordance with its old URL and publish.
3. If published or step 2 does not work:
3.a. Open a text editor (such as a Notepad or Microsoft Word) and make one file containing all contents of problematic posts.
3.b. Delete all problematic posts.
3.c. Clear all browsing data and close your web browser.
3.d. Refer to saved file to make new blog posts. Change each of post's title in accordance with its old URL.
3.e. Change the date's day; leave the month and year the same. Publish.
3.f. Edit date's day to correct day. Publish.
Another small price to pay for deleting Linkwithin the unconventional way is dealing with your site's followers. This concern arises when you use a different blog address as I have done. To somehow alleviate the problem, you can automatically redirect your readers to your new blog address. Just follow these steps:
1. Make a new blog. Use your old Blog URL. Home > New Blog
2. Edit site's code. Blog Page > Template > Edit HTML > Proceed
3. Find this code: <b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>
4. Add this code after: <meta content="0;url=http://NEW URL" http-equiv="refresh"/>
Being a neat freak, I now enjoy peace of mind after removing Linkwithin from my site. Now, I am very careful of the gadgets I add to my site; I make sure first that they can be easily removed before daring to install them. Also, I've realized the importance of backing up my template! Of course, I could have avoided all these inconveniences had I just backed up my site prior to making any changes.
I hope this post has helped you one way or another!
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