UserProofUserProof / Dead clicks / Finder
Dead click finder: click through your own page and see what does nothing
Try it on the demo below: each control is one of the kinds of dead click we found most often on 493 YC startup homepages. 43 of the 49 dead clicks there were on real buttons and links, so click your menus and buttons first, not just your text.
Try it here
The finder is already running on this box. Click each control once, wait a few seconds, and read the list under it. (This page, like the rest of our site, runs our own analytics; see the privacy page.)
looks clickable, isn't
Ships in 2 business days. (This line appearing is what "worked" means.)
One click on each control above gives:
- “Show shipping details” (button): worked: the page changed in 12 ms
- “Product ▾” (button): dead click: nothing changed in 5 seconds
- “Starter plan $0 a month” (div): dead click: nothing changed in 5 seconds
- “Save draft” (button): slow: the page changed after 2.6 s
- “Export CSV” (button): error on click: Error: export failed: no rows selected
- “Copy coupon code” (button): worked: it copied text in 3 ms
6 clicks judged: 2 dead, 1 slow, 1 with an error, 2 worked.
For comparison: 33 of 493 YC startup homepages (6.7%) had at least one dead click in our October 28, 2026 scan.
Run it on your own site
- Bookmark: drag this button to your bookmarks bar: Dead click finder. Open your page and click the bookmark. A small panel appears in the corner.
- Console, if your site blocks outside scripts: open your page, open the developer console (Cmd+Option+J on a Mac, Ctrl+Shift+J on Windows), paste the code and press Enter. The code is the open file dead-click-finder.js.
- Click the menus, buttons, cards and links you want to test, one at a time, a few seconds apart. Rest the mouse on each one a moment before clicking, as our scanner did, and keep it still until the result shows. A link that loads a new page takes the panel with it: click the bookmark again on the new page and the list comes back. Then use "Copy the list" to paste the result into Claude Code or a ticket.
How to read the result
- Worked: something visible happened within 2 seconds: a new page, a change on the page, a new address, a popup, a dialog, a copy, a file loaded, or focus moved to another field.
- Slow: it happened, but after more than 2 seconds, the threshold our scanner uses.
- Dead click: nothing happened in 5 seconds. If it doesn't look clickable either, the finder says so.
- Error on click: a script on the page threw an error within 1.5 seconds of the click.
- Not judged: a form field (typing is the test), a download, email or phone link, or a click you made before the last one finished.
How your page compares
In our scan of 493 YC startup homepages on October 28, 2026, 33 (6.7%) had at least one dead click, 17 of the 49 dead clicks were in the header, nav or footer, and 43 of 49 were real buttons and links. 460 of 493 homepages (93.3%) had no dead click in the clicks we tested, so even one puts a page in the minority. Treat it as a rough comparison: the scan clicked up to 20 things per page and you choose your own. The full breakdown is in the dead click report.
Worked example
On the demo box, "Product ▾" opens its menu on hover. Clicking it changes nothing, so the finder marks it dead after 5 seconds. Buttons in the header, nav or footer were the biggest group in our scan: 17 of 49. The fix is to let the click open the menu as well, which is also the only way in for keyboard users.
What it can't see
The finder judges only the clicks you make in your own tab. It can't see clicks inside embedded frames (Calendly, Typeform, YouTube) or what happens on a server, it ignores requests to analytics and replay tools (Google Analytics, Clarity, Hotjar, PostHog, Segment and others), and a page that changes on its own all the time can hide a dead click. It never clicks anything for you and never submits a form.
The clicks your visitors make
The finder tests the clicks you think of. UserProof records what real visitors click, finds dead clicks, rage clicks, errors on click and slow responses, and gives Claude Code the one fix that costs you the most signups, with the file and line. Free for 3 sites; Pro is $29 a month.
Related: how common dead clicks are on 493 startup homepages, the YC homepage report, the session replay cost calculator, the funnel calculator (which step loses the most signups).
Sources
- UserProof homepage scan of 493 YC startups, October 28, 2026: the 5-second and 2-second rules and the comparison numbers.
- Microsoft Clarity, semantic metrics (read November 2, 2026).
Cite this
UserProof, “Dead click finder,” https://getuserproof.com/dead-click-checker; benchmark: 33 of 493 YC startup homepages (6.7%) had at least one dead click in our October 28, 2026 scan.
FAQ
What is a dead click?
A click or tap that produces no visible response: no new page, no menu, no change on the screen. The finder calls a click dead when nothing changes within 5 seconds.
Does the dead click finder send my data anywhere?
The finder makes no requests of its own and keeps the list in your tab. The bookmark loads the script file from getuserproof.com, so our server sees that one file request like any page asset; paste the code in the console to skip even that. Closing the panel stops it.
Why does my menu button show as a dead click?
If the menu opens on hover, the click itself changes nothing, and touch screens and keyboards may never trigger the hover. Make the click open the menu too.
Why does a click show as worked when nothing seemed to happen?
Something on the page changed, the address changed, or it loaded a file. Analytics and replay beacons don't count, but a hidden change does.
Can it find dead clicks my visitors make?
No, it only judges the clicks you make. To see the clicks real visitors make, you need session recordings; UserProof finds those dead clicks for you.