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Who this guide is for
Anyone using Microsoft Clarity who wants to understand what rage clicks and dead clicks mean, how to find them, and what to do about the ones that are worth fixing.
Prerequisites
Clarity installed and collecting data. Familiarity with the dashboard helps but is not essential. If you have not set up Clarity yet, start with Guide 01.
What you will be able to do
Locate rage click and dead click data in Clarity, identify which occurrences are real friction versus normal visitor behaviour, trace them to their cause, and apply the right fix for each type.
Time to review
Fifteen to twenty minutes to check the dashboard summary, identify the highest-frequency friction points, and pull up recordings to confirm the cause. Fixing them depends on the issue — some take five minutes, some require developer time.
Find your first rage click today
Open your Clarity dashboard, check the friction summary, and look at the heatmap for your contact page on mobile. There is almost certainly a dead click waiting to be fixed.
Disclosure: This is not a paid promotion. I have no affiliate or commercial relationship with Microsoft or Microsoft Clarity. It is a tool I genuinely use across my own businesses and for clients. Views are my own.
What rage clicks and dead clicks actually are
These two signals are often mentioned together but they mean different things and point to different problems. Understanding the distinction is the starting point for using them productively.
🔝Rage click
A rage click is recorded when a visitor clicks or taps rapidly in the same area of a page multiple times in quick succession. Clarity flags this automatically when the click frequency exceeds its threshold in a small screen area.
The name implies frustration, and it often does indicate it — but not always. The defining characteristic is repetition in the same spot. The visitor expected something to happen and it did not, so they tried again.
Clarity detection: automatic — appears in dashboard summary, in session recording filters, and highlighted in the recording player at the moment it occurs.
📷Dead click
A dead click is recorded when a visitor clicks on a part of the page that has no interactive function attached to it — an image that is not a link, a heading styled to look like a button, a section of text the visitor expected to be clickable.
Unlike a rage click, a dead click may occur just once. The visitor clicks, nothing happens, and they move on — or leave. The issue is not necessarily frustration but unmet expectation.
Clarity detection: automatic — appears in the click heatmap as a distinct marker, in dashboard summary, and in recording filter options.
The key distinction in practice: a rage click tells you something was expected to work and did not. A dead click tells you something was expected to be interactive and is not. Both are worth investigating, but they call for different responses.
Where to find rage click and dead click data in Clarity
Clarity surfaces these signals in three places: the main dashboard summary, the heatmap view, and the session recordings filter. Each gives you a different level of detail.
1
Start with the dashboard summary
The Clarity project dashboard shows a summary of rage click and dead click counts across the site for the selected date range. These headline numbers are the first thing to check in a monthly review. A count that is higher than previous months warrants investigation. A very high absolute count on a site with significant traffic may be normal; a sudden spike is the signal worth responding to.
The dashboard may also show the pages with the highest frustration signal counts, which gives you an immediate priority list rather than requiring you to check pages one by one.
2
Find the specific element in the heatmap
Open the heatmap for the page flagged in the dashboard. Switch to the click heatmap view. Clarity overlays dead click indicators directly on the heatmap — you can see exactly which element on the page is receiving clicks that are landing on nothing interactive. Rage click hot spots are also visible in the heatmap as concentrated heat on a specific element.
This is where you identify the element. You cannot yet tell why visitors are clicking it — that requires a recording.
3
Use recording filters to find sessions with these signals
Go to the recordings section. Apply a filter for rage clicks or dead clicks. If you want to focus on a specific page, also filter by the page URL. This narrows the recording list to sessions where the signal occurred on that page, which is a much more efficient starting point than watching recordings at random.
Watch six to ten filtered recordings. You are looking for what the visitor was trying to do at the moment of the click: where their mouse moved beforehand, what else they clicked, and what they did immediately after.
Common causes: what is usually behind each type
Most rage clicks and dead clicks trace back to one of a small number of causes. Knowing the common patterns makes it faster to diagnose each specific instance.
Rage click cause
A button or link that did not respond
The most common cause. The visitor clicked a button, nothing visibly changed, so they clicked again. Causes include a JavaScript error preventing the click handler from firing, a form submit button that appears to do nothing while processing in the background, or a touch target on mobile that is too small to register reliably.
Rage click cause
Slow page response after a click
The visitor clicked and the page began to respond, but the response was slow enough that they assumed nothing had happened and clicked again. Common on form submissions, search functions, or any interaction that triggers a server request. Multiple clicks on a slow submit button can result in duplicate form submissions if the form is not protected against this.
Dead click cause
An image that looks like it should link somewhere
Product images, service icons, team member photos, and partner logos are all commonly clicked by visitors who expect them to be links. If they do not link anywhere, visitors experience the click as a failure even though the element was never intended to be interactive. The styling of the element — borders, hover effects, or placement in a grid — often implies interactivity when there is none.
Dead click cause
A heading or block of text styled like a button or link
Section headings with bold text, large font, or a distinct colour are sometimes clicked by visitors who mistake them for navigational elements. Call-to-action text that is not wrapped in a button or anchor tag will appear as dead clicks in Clarity even if it visually resembles a link.
Both types
A mobile element with an insufficient tap target
On mobile, a tap target smaller than about 44 by 44 pixels is frequently missed and results in taps landing just outside the interactive zone. This produces dead clicks (the tap lands on the non-interactive area around the element) and can escalate to rage clicks if the visitor tries repeatedly. Common on small icon buttons, inline text links, and navigation items that have not been sized for touch.
Both types
Content that has shifted or loaded late
If a page has layout shift during loading — content moving after the visitor has already begun clicking — a click intended for an interactive element can land on whatever moved into that position. This can produce either a rage click (the intended element moved, so they click again where it went) or a dead click (the element that moved into position is not interactive). Common on pages with late-loading ads, images without declared dimensions, or dynamic content.
When to act and when to leave it alone
Not every rage click or dead click on your site represents a problem worth fixing. The signals are automatic and will appear in some form on almost any real website.
The threshold for acting is when the same element is generating the same signal repeatedly, across multiple sessions. One visitor who rage-clicked a button once may have experienced a one-off glitch, or may have had a slow connection, or may have been distracted. Fifteen visitors who rage-clicked the same button in the same place is a pattern that needs investigation.
| What you see | Likely interpretation | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Same element, multiple sessions, rage clicks | Element is broken or unresponsive for a meaningful proportion of visitors | Act: investigate and fix the element |
| Same element, multiple sessions, dead clicks | Element looks interactive but is not — visitor expectation is being misled | Act: link it or restyle it |
| Rage clicks on a form submit button | Form response is slow or silent — visitor does not know it is processing | Act: add a loading state or progress indicator |
| Dead clicks concentrated on a phone number in text | Visitors are trying to click-to-call or copy the number — reasonable expectation | Act: wrap number in a tel: link |
| Single rage click, single session, not repeated elsewhere | Isolated incident — one visitor, one moment | Leave: not a pattern |
| Dead clicks on a logo or decorative image in a content area | Visitor curiosity, not frustration — depends on frequency | Investigate: if repeated, consider linking the image |
| Rage clicks on a video play button | Video not loading, or autoplay blocked — genuine friction | Act: check video embed and loading behaviour |
| Dead clicks on a testimonial or review block | Visitor may expect to be able to click through to a full review or source | Investigate: consider linking to the original source if one exists |
| Rage clicks during a period when you know you deployed a change | The deployment may have introduced a bug | Act: review recordings immediately and roll back if needed |
| Low-frequency dead clicks scattered across many different elements | Exploratory clicking — normal visitor behaviour | Leave: no concentrated pattern to fix |
The phone number dead click is worth catching specifically
A plain text phone number on a webpage consistently generates dead clicks because mobile visitors tap it expecting a call to initiate. Wrapping it in a tel: link is a five-minute fix that converts those dead clicks into actual calls. If you have a phone number visible in a site header or contact section that is not a link, check whether it is generating dead clicks in Clarity — it almost certainly is.
How to investigate a specific friction point
Once you have identified an element generating repeated signals, the investigation process is the same whether it is a rage click or a dead click.
1
Confirm the element in the heatmap
Open the click heatmap for the page on the relevant device type. Locate the element that is generating the signal. Note exactly what it is: a button, an image, a text block, a navigation item, a form element. Also note the surrounding context — what is nearby that might be causing the visitor to expect interaction from this element.
2
Watch recordings filtered to that signal on that page
Filter recordings to sessions with the relevant signal type (rage click or dead click) and the relevant page. Watch six to ten recordings at 4x speed, slowing to 1x at the moment of the click. You are looking for: what was the visitor doing just before the click, what did they do immediately after, and did the pattern vary between sessions or was it consistent?
Consistent behaviour across multiple sessions — visitors clicking the same element in the same way with the same non-result — is a reliable signal that the element itself is the issue rather than individual variation in visitor behaviour.
3
Test the element yourself on the live site
After watching recordings, go to the live page on the relevant device type and try to reproduce the experience. Click the element. Does it respond as expected? On mobile, tap it. Is the tap target large enough? Does it take noticeably long to respond? Is the response clearly visible?
Testing on the live site often reveals something the recording showed but that you did not immediately connect to a specific cause — a slow response, a missing visual feedback state, or a touch target that requires precision to hit.
4
Check for JavaScript errors in Clarity
If the investigation points toward a button or form element that should be interactive but is not responding, Clarity’s JavaScript error tracking can confirm whether a script error is preventing the click handler from firing. In Clarity, look for error indicators in the session recordings for the affected sessions, or check the dashboard for any spike in JavaScript errors around the same date the rage clicks appeared.
The fixes that work for each cause type
Most friction caused by rage clicks and dead clicks resolves into a small set of specific fixes. Here are the most common ones and when to apply them.
Problem: button not responding
Add a loading state and prevent double submission
Fix type: Development
If a form or button does not give visual feedback while processing, visitors assume it has not worked. The fix is to disable the button on first click and show a loading indicator. This prevents double submission and eliminates the source of the rage click in one change.
Problem: image not linked
Link the image to the relevant page or expand it on click
Fix type: Content / CMS
If visitors consistently click an image expecting to navigate somewhere, the easiest fix is to make it a link. If no natural destination exists, a lightbox or expand-on-click behaviour can satisfy the expectation without requiring a separate page.
Problem: text looks like a link or button
Wrap it in a proper link element, or restyle it
Fix type: Development / Design
If text is styled in a way that implies it should be clickable, either make it clickable or change the styling so it no longer suggests interactivity. Bold colour-contrasted text in isolation often reads as a call-to-action to a visitor even when it is just a heading.
Problem: phone number not tappable
Wrap in a tel: link
Fix type: Content / HTML
Plain text phone numbers generate dead clicks on mobile reliably. The fix is a single HTML change: <a href="tel:+44XXXXXXXXXX">Phone number</a>. This converts dead clicks into actual calls and takes under five minutes to implement.
Problem: tap target too small on mobile
Increase the tap target size to at least 44px
Fix type: CSS / Development
Add padding around small interactive elements so the tappable area is large enough to hit reliably without precision. The element itself does not need to look larger — additional padding within the anchor or button element extends the touch target without changing the visual design.
Problem: layout shift causing misclicks
Declare dimensions for images and late-loading elements
Fix type: Development
Prevent layout shift by adding explicit width and height attributes to images and reserving space for dynamic content before it loads. This is also a Core Web Vitals issue (Cumulative Layout Shift) so fixing it improves both visitor experience and search ranking.
Do not fix and forget — verify the change worked
After making a fix, allow two to four weeks for new session data to accumulate and then check the rage click or dead click count for the affected page. If the fix worked, the signal should reduce noticeably on that element. If it persists, the underlying cause may be different from what you diagnosed — review a fresh set of recordings with the same filter.
Three real patterns and what changed after fixing them
These three examples are drawn from patterns seen across the business and client sites. They represent the most common types of friction that Clarity’s signals surfaced.
Real pattern 01 — Service pages across the Carden businesses
The service icons that visitors expected to link somewhere
What Clarity showed
The click heatmap on several service overview pages showed dead click clusters concentrated on icon-and-title cards in a grid layout. Each card had an icon, a service name, and a short description. Visitors were clicking the icon or the title expecting to navigate to a more detailed service page. The cards were styled with a subtle border and hover effect but were not linked.
What the recordings showed
Session recordings filtered by dead clicks on these pages confirmed the pattern clearly. Visitors would land on the page, read the service grid, click a card, notice nothing happened, and often leave shortly after. The click was not frustrated — it was exploratory — but the dead end clearly deflated the visit.
The fix
Each service card was made into a link pointing to the corresponding detailed service page. The hover styling was updated to make the card’s clickability more obvious — a cursor pointer and a slightly more pronounced hover state.
What changed
Dead click activity on the service grid dropped significantly in subsequent heatmaps. Session recordings showed visitors navigating through to individual service pages rather than hitting a dead end at the grid. The pages now function as intended — an entry point that routes visitors toward the most relevant service rather than a display board that goes nowhere.
Real pattern 02 — Contact forms across multiple sites
The form submit button that looked like it did nothing
What Clarity showed
Rage clicks concentrated on the submit button of a contact form on one of the business sites. The dashboard showed a higher-than-expected rage click count for the contact page. Filtering recordings by rage clicks on that page surfaced clear evidence: visitors were clicking the submit button, waiting a moment, and clicking it again one to three more times before either waiting longer or leaving.
The cause
The form was submitting correctly — the backend was working and enquiries were being received. But the button had no loading state. When clicked, nothing visibly changed on the form. Visitors had no way of knowing whether their click had registered. From their perspective, the button appeared unresponsive, so they clicked again.
The fix
A loading state was added to the submit button — a spinner icon and “Sending…” text appearing on first click, with the button disabled to prevent duplicate submissions. The form already worked; the fix was purely a visual feedback improvement.
What changed
Rage clicks on the submit button reduced immediately. Recordings showed visitors clicking once and waiting rather than clicking repeatedly. An additional benefit: duplicate form submissions stopped, which had been a minor operational problem for the team receiving enquiries.
Real pattern 03 — Mobile visitors on contact pages
The phone number nobody could tap to call
What Clarity showed
Dead clicks consistently appearing on phone numbers displayed in the header and contact section of several sites, concentrated almost entirely in mobile sessions. The heatmap made it obvious: the numbers were the most-tapped elements on the mobile view of the contact page, and every tap was a dead click.
The cause
Phone numbers had been entered as plain text in the site content. On desktop, this is not a significant problem — visitors can copy and paste. On mobile, tapping a phone number is how you call it, and plain text does not initiate a call. Every mobile visitor who tapped the number expecting to call was hitting a dead end.
The fix
All phone numbers across the affected sites were wrapped in tel: links. A content check was done across all pages to catch any instances in body copy as well as headers and footers. Total time to implement across all sites: under an hour.
What changed
Dead clicks on phone numbers dropped to near zero on mobile. Call tracking data for the relevant sites showed an increase in click-to-call events following the change. This was one of the highest return-on-time fixes in the whole Clarity review process — a five-minute change with an immediate and measurable effect on how mobile visitors could make contact.
For the broader session recording investigation workflow that complements this guide, see Guide 03. For reading heatmaps to find the patterns that lead to these investigation moments, see Guide 02. And for the full picture of how I use Clarity across my businesses, see my Microsoft Clarity overview.
Rage click and dead click review checklist
Monthly dashboard check
- Noted the current rage click and dead click totals for the site
- Compared to the previous month — is there a meaningful change?
- Identified which pages are generating the highest frustration signal counts
Heatmap investigation
- Opened the click heatmap for the highest-signal page
- Located the specific element generating the signal — identified what it is (image, button, text, etc.)
- Noted the surrounding context — what about the element implies interactivity?
- Checked both mobile and desktop heatmap views — the signal may be concentrated on one device type
Recording investigation
- Filtered recordings to the relevant signal type and page
- Watched six to ten sessions with the signal occurring
- Confirmed the pattern is consistent across sessions (not an isolated incident)
- Identified the probable cause from the common causes list
- Tested the element on the live site to reproduce the issue
Fix and confirm
- Applied the appropriate fix from the cause type (link it, restyle it, add a loading state, increase tap target, etc.)
- Set a reminder to check the heatmap and recordings again in two to four weeks
- Confirmed in the follow-up review that the signal has reduced on the fixed element
- If the signal persists after the fix: reviewed fresh recordings to check whether the diagnosis was correct
Quick wins to check on any site
- All phone numbers wrapped in tel: links — check mobile heatmap for dead clicks on numbers
- All service, product, or team grid cards linked if they have hover effects or border styling
- All form submit buttons have a loading state and are disabled on first click
- Image dimensions declared to prevent layout shift misclicks
- Touch targets on mobile navigation and icon buttons checked for minimum 44px tappable area
Find your first rage click today
Open your Clarity dashboard, check the friction summary, and look at the heatmap for your contact page on mobile. There is almost certainly a dead click waiting to be fixed.
Disclosure: This is not a paid promotion. I have no affiliate or commercial relationship with Microsoft or Microsoft Clarity. It is a tool I genuinely use across my own businesses and for clients. Views are my own.
