Guide
Changing where a short link points after you have shared it
A short link is an address you hand out and then lose control of — it ends up in messages, slides, printed material and other people's posts. Being able to change what sits behind it, without changing the address itself, is what turns a shortener from a convenience into infrastructure.
Why this matters more than it sounds
Every link you publish is a bet that the destination will stay correct. Pages get moved during a site redesign. Campaigns end. A product page is replaced by a better one. Someone spots that the URL in the printed programme goes to last year's schedule.
Without an editable destination, each of those is a broken address in circulation and no way to fix it — the only remedy is to reissue the link and hope you can reach everyone who has the old one. With one, it is a thirty-second change and the existing address keeps working.
What you can change, and on which plan
| Action | Anonymous | Free | Plus / Pro / Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create a short link | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause the redirect | No | Yes | Yes |
| Resume a paused link | No | Yes | Yes |
| Change the destination URL | No | No | Yes |
| Delete the link | No | Yes | Yes |
| Set a custom expiry | No | No | Pro and Enterprise only |
The short code itself never changes. Editing rewrites what the redirect points at; it does not reissue the address, which is exactly what makes it useful.
Edit or pause — they solve different problems
Edit when the address should keep working but the destination is wrong: a moved page, a replaced product, a campaign that now points somewhere better. Visitors notice nothing.
Pause when nobody should be arriving at all: a leaked link, an offer that ended, a destination that is temporarily broken. The redirect stops, the record and the slug are kept, and you can switch it back on later. Pausing is available on the free plan, which makes it the right first move in an emergency even if you cannot edit.
Deleting is the third option and the only irreversible one — it releases the slug, so the address can eventually be issued to someone else. Prefer pausing unless you are certain.
Links you made before signing up
An anonymous link cannot be edited or paused, because there is no owner to authorise the change. If you have links from before you had an account, claim them into the account while they are still live. Claiming makes them permanent and brings them under the same controls as anything else you own.
Doing it at scale
One link is a click in the dashboard. A campaign's worth is a different job, and the API handles it: destinations can be patched programmatically, in batches, which is what you want when a site migration invalidates a few hundred targets at once. API keys are available on paid plans.
The same applies if your links live on a custom domain — editing works identically, and the combination is what makes short links something you can commit to printed material without anxiety.
What editing cannot fix
It cannot help with a link that has already been followed — anyone who clicked before the change went to the old destination, and there is no recalling that. If a link is sending people somewhere harmful, pause it first and fix the destination second; pausing takes effect immediately and is available even when editing is not.
It also cannot rescue an expired anonymous link or one on a lapsed custom domain. Both of those are gone rather than misconfigured — see do short links expire for what survives and what does not.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you change where a short link points after you have shared it?
- Yes, if the shortener supports editable destinations. The short address stays the same and the redirect target changes, so anything already carrying that link starts sending people to the new page. On Linkonda this requires a Plus, Pro, or Enterprise plan.
- Does changing the destination break links already printed or posted?
- No — that is the entire point. The short URL is unchanged, so posters, slide decks, business cards and old posts keep working. Only the page people land on is different.
- Can I edit a link I made without an account?
- Not directly. Anonymous links have no owner, so there is nothing to authenticate an edit against. Claim the link into an account first, then edit it if you are on a paid plan.
- What if I just need to stop a link working?
- Pause it. Pausing switches the redirect off while keeping the record and reserving the slug, and it is available on every signed-in account including the free plan. It is reversible, unlike deleting.
- Is editing a destination a security risk?
- It is worth understanding: anyone who can edit a link can change where an already-circulated address sends people. That is why the ability is tied to an authenticated account and why it is worth being deliberate about who has access to the account that owns your published links.