Error click detection
An error click is a UX-signal event where a user's click is shortly followed by a JavaScript error, suggesting the click triggered a fault. Experience tooling correlates click timing with the next thrown error within a window. It is a derived signal, not a native GA4 event; emit it as a custom event. Unlike a dead click (no reaction) it indicates the handler ran and failed.
How the correlation works
The rule is: a click happened, and within a short window an error was thrown (via window.onerror or unhandledrejection). The window length is a tool convention. Because there is no native error_click event, you listen for both, match them by time, and send a custom event. This connects the symptom (a click) to the fault (an error) so you can find the failing handler.
Where it sits among UX signals
Error clicks complete a trio with dead clicks and rage clicks. A dead click means nothing happened; an error click means something happened and broke; a rage click means the user got frustrated enough to repeat. Triaging by signal lets you route inert controls to design and failing controls to engineering, instead of treating all unhappy clicks the same.
- Rule: click followed by a thrown error within a window
- Distinguishes 'handler ran and failed' from a dead click
- Sanitise error text to remove any PII
How it appears in analytics and logs
An error click means the click reached a handler that then threw — a runtime fault in your code — rather than an inert or misleading element.
Diagnostic use case
Pinpoint controls whose handlers throw by correlating each click with any JavaScript error fired immediately after, so you fix the failing code path.
What WebmasterID can help detect
WebmasterID's first-party model can record a non-identifying error-click signal linking a selector to an error class, without storing replays of real people.
Common mistakes
- Logging raw error messages that may contain personal data.
- Attributing unrelated background errors to a click.
- Conflating error clicks with dead clicks.
Privacy and accuracy notes
Correlation needs the clicked selector, timing, and a sanitised error type — never the visitor's identity or any PII embedded in error messages. Strip message contents that could carry personal data.
Related pages
- The exception event (error tracking)
An exception event records that a client-side error occurred — a JavaScript error or a failed operation. GA4 supports an exception event for this. Tracking errors in analytics ties reliability to behaviour: you can see which pages throw and whether errors correlate with drop-off. The catch is that error messages and stack traces can leak personal data, so what you capture needs care.
- Rage click detection
A rage click is a UX-signal event: a user clicks the same element several times in quick succession, usually because something looks interactive but does not respond. Frustration-signal tooling defines it by a click count within a short time window on a small pixel area. It is not a standard GA4 event name; it is a derived behavioural signal you compute or import. Treated carefully it flags broken or confusing UI.
- Dead click detection
A dead click is a UX-signal event where a user clicks an element and nothing observable happens — no navigation, no DOM change, no network call. Experience tooling derives it by watching for the absence of a reaction after a click within a short window. Like rage clicks it is not a native GA4 event; you compute it and send it as a custom event. It flags elements that look interactive but are inert.
- Website observability
Link broken clicks to the errors they trigger.
Sources and verification notes
Last reviewed 2026-06-24. Facts are checked against primary/official sources where available; uncertain specifics are marked “Data not yet verified” rather than guessed.