Shortening a link seems like a small decision. It's one of the most expensive to undo: when the address is already in a publication, on a card or in a video, changing it is losing everything it was going to bring.
A short link is a promise
When you shorten a link and put it in a post, card or video, you are promising that address will continue to work. Months later, years later. That's why choosing a shortener is not choosing a tool — it's choosing who you trust to keep a promise you made yourself.
These are the seven things worth demanding before adopting one.
1. The link must be able to change destinations
A static link is an irreversible decision. If you put the address on a printed flyer, sticker or video already published, and the destination changes, you lost everything that link would bring.
A decent shortener lets you change the destination without changing the address. It's the difference between reprinting a thousand flyers and editing a field.
2. Own domain, or at least the output
A link with your domain is recognized, is clicked more often, and survives the vendor. If you ever change platforms, the links continue to work because the domain is yours.
Without own domain, all the links you spread belong to someone else. It is worth asking this at the beginning and not at the end.
3. Statistics that say something
Counting clicks is the minimum. What matters to know is where they come, in which device, and at what time — because that's what changes what you do next. A peak at nine at night on a mobile phone doesn't respond in the same way as a constant computer flow during the day.
4. What happens when you want to go out
This is the question that almost no one asks and that should be the first. Can you export your links? And the contacts you collected? in what format?
A platform that makes it difficult to leave is telling you that it has the difficulty, and not the service, to keep you.
5. Speed seriously
A redirection adds a jump between the click and the page. If this jump takes half a second, you lost people along the way — especially on mobile data, which is where most people click.
6. Without advertising in the middle
Some free services provide a standby screen with ads before letting them reach the destination. Whoever clicked on your link didn't ask for it, and associate it with you — not the one who put it there.
7. QR codes that can be corrected
A QR code is a printed link. If you point directly to the final destination, you are stuck with it forever. If you point to a short link you can edit, the same code continues to work even if everything else changes.
And if you need more than shorten
Many people start to shorten links and end up needing a page where they put them all together — to put them in the bio, on the card, in the profile. If that's the case, it's worth choosing from the beginning a tool that does both, instead of ending the historic party between two sites.
In Kortilink you have the two: short links with own domain and statistics, and a link page with 27 block types — music, video, store, schedule, polls. And you export everything whenever you want, without asking anyone for permission.