🧠 Why Avoid Loading Empty Sections or Widgets?
In Blogger, empty sections or widgets often render like this:
<div class="sidebar no-items section" id="sidebar-right"></div>
Even with no widget inside, this blank HTML still loads.
Problems caused by this:
- Wastes space and slows loading
- Hurts Core Web Vitals (CLS, LCP)
- Affects AdSense layout compliance
- Looks unprofessional
- Consumes crawl budget unnecessarily
✅ The Solution: Use cond to Load Only When Needed
The latest Blogger templates support a powerful cond attribute in both <b:section> and <b:widget> tags.
This allows you to fully prevent empty content from loading into your site’s HTML.
🔧 Avoid Empty Sections
Example: Sidebar Section
<b:section
cond='data:widgets any (w => w.sectionId == "sidebar-right")'
id='sidebar-right'
class='sidebar'
showaddelement='yes' />
- ✅ Loads only if there’s a widget assigned
- ❌ Skipped entirely if empty (no
<div>output) - ✅ No need for CSS hacks like
.no-items
🧪 Avoid Empty Widgets
Popular Posts Widget:
<b:widget
cond='data:posts.any'
id='PopularPost1'
type='PopularPosts'
title='Trending Posts'
version='2' />
This widget is rendered only if it has posts to show.
📦 More Real Examples
Feed Widget (Recent Posts / RSS):
<b:widget
cond='data:posts.any'
id='RecentFeed1'
type='Feed'
title='Latest Updates' />
Labels Widget:
<b:widget
cond='data:labels.any'
id='Label1'
type='Label'
title='Topics' />
Footer Section:
<b:section
cond='data:widgets any (w => w.sectionId == "footer-1")'
id='footer-1'
class='footer-column' />
✅ SEO, Speed, and AdSense Benefits
| ✅ Benefit | 💡 Explanation |
|---|---|
| No extra HTML | Cleaner DOM structure |
| Faster Page Load | Smaller output = better speed |
| AdSense Safe | Avoids blank layout violations |
| Google Friendly | Reduces CLS and unused DOM |
| Better UX | Nothing loads unless needed |
🛠 Older Workarounds (Now Obsolete)
Some older tutorials use this approach:
<b:if cond='data:widgets.size > 0'>
<b:section id='footer1'/>
</b:if>
While it works in some cases, it may still leave partial or empty HTML output.
👉 Use cond instead — it's cleaner and officially supported.
💬 Conclusion
Using the cond attribute in Blogger is the best way to avoid loading empty sections or widgets.
It results in:
- Better loading speed
- Improved SEO and AdSense scores
- Cleaner layout with no visual glitches
- A more professional blog experience
Apply this technique to your:
- Sidebars
- Footers
- Popular Posts
- Labels
- Feeds
- Custom widget zones
…and your Blogger theme will be lighter, cleaner, and more efficient.