Is it bad practice to change the name of a menu item after the function has been used?

Question

We have a function on our website where the user is able to link a page to other existing pages. When a page has links to other pages, a special icon is displayed on the page, through which the user can view the links and move to those pages.

There is a function under a menu that lets the user "manage links". Under that function, they can remove existing links or add new ones. The problem is, that if there are no links on the page yet, "manage links" is not really the most natural option to present; as there are none yet.

Would it be bad to have the option labeled "add new link" (or something similar) if no links are added yet, and after that the option would change to "manage links"? Or do you feel like "manage links" is a natural way for the user to add the first link on the page?

and no, unfortunately we are not allowed to have two separate menu items, so that there would be always the option to both add new links and to manage existing ones.

I couldn't really find any concrete information on this subject, so any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

In my opinion, you are on the right track.

Having two options depending on the state of the page seems the optimal way forward. It makes total sense to have the option "Add Link" if the user has not added any links yet, so they know what exactly they need to be doing when they click on that option; and the option "Edit Link", once the user has added a link, for the same reason.

Based on my experience, copywriting needs to adapt to the specific context and in your case having two wordings will most likely make things clearer to your users.

Good luck!