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Link cloaking — keep the short URL visible

Turn on cloaking for a URL link and the short URL stays in the address bar — the destination loads inside a full-page frame instead of as a redirect.

Updated today 3 min read

A normal short link 302's the visitor to the destination. The address bar flips from linkedco.de/promo to partner-site.com/?ref=12345&utm_…&promo_id=…. Cloaking changes that: the visitor stays on linkedco.de/promo and the destination loads inside a full-viewport frame. Same end result for them, cleaner URL surface for you.

Audience: anyone with the link editor Time: 30 seconds Outcome: short URL stays in the address bar
One toggle, two extra inputs. Open a URL link in Links, find the Cloaking card, flip the toggle on. Optional: set a custom page title and favicon so the cloaked tab looks like its own page.

What cloaking is good for

Affiliate links Visitors see your domain, not the ugly tracking URL with the ref parameter strung on the end. Partnership URLs Co-marketing pages that live on a partner's domain stay branded as yours in the address bar. Brand consistency Print, ads and emails point at one URL — `you.com/x` — even when the underlying destination changes.

How to turn it on

  1. Cloaking only shows for URL links — WiFi / vCard / Calendar and the rest serve their own scan page so there's nothing to frame.

  2. Find the Cloaking card.

    Below App linking, above Query forwarding in the Edit tab.

  3. Flip Keep the short URL visible.

    Two extra fields appear: page title and favicon URL.

  4. Optional: customise the tab.

    Page title shows in the browser tab and history. Favicon is a small image file you upload — PNG, JPG, WebP, SVG or ICO, square works best, under 512KB.

Some destinations refuse to be framed. Banks, Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, Stripe, Facebook, Amazon, GitHub and most large platforms set HTTP headers (`X-Frame-Options` or `Content-Security-Policy: frame-ancestors`) that block their pages from loading inside an iframe. If you cloak a link to one of those, the frame will display the destination's "refused to display" error instead of the actual page. The fix is to leave cloaking off for those links — they're not yours to control. Most independent sites, your own pages, partner microsites and affiliate landers without modern security headers work fine.

The cloak page

linkedco.de/promo
DESTINATION RENDERS HERE
The visitor sees one tab: your short URL stays in the address bar, the destination paints inside.

What carries over, what doesn't

Pixels
Yes. Tracking pixels you've attached to the link still fire in the cloak page's `<head>` before the destination renders.
Password protection
Yes. The password prompt runs before the cloak page does — visitor unlocks first, then cloaks in.
Click tracking
Yes. The click is recorded the same as any 302 redirect.
App linking
No. App linking redirects away from your domain to the native app scheme — that defeats cloaking. Pick one per link.
UTM auto-append + query forwarding
Yes. The destination URL that gets framed already has UTMs and forwarded query params applied.
Ready? Cloak a link.
Open one in Links and find the Cloaking card.
Open Links

Troubleshooting

"This page can't be displayed in a frame." The destination set X-Frame-Options to DENY or SAMEORIGIN, or a CSP frame-ancestors header. You can't override this from the visitor side — the rule is enforced by the destination's server. Turn cloaking off for the link.
The favicon doesn't show. Browsers cache favicons aggressively — sometimes for days. Force a hard reload (Cmd-Shift-R / Ctrl-Shift-R) after replacing one. If you're on iOS Safari, fully quit + reopen the tab.
I want to undo cloaking. Flip the toggle off and save. The link reverts to a regular 302 immediately — the title and favicon stay saved so re-enabling later picks them back up.
From here
Foundation Short links Slugs, destinations, and re-pointing without breaking what you've shared. Polish Social preview Control the unfurl card in iMessage, Slack, LinkedIn and Discord. Measurement Tracking pixels Attach Meta / GA4 / TikTok pixels — they fire inside the cloak page too.