At a glance
Dead Click Rate % is a frustration-signal metric tracked from FullStory data. A dead click is FullStory’s name for a click on an element that produces no response at all, no navigation, no state change, nothing. It almost always means a non-interactive thing looks clickable: an image that looks like a button, a label that reads like a link, a control disabled without visual feedback. This card reports the share of sessions containing at least one dead click. A rising rate points to misleading design that quietly wastes visitor intent.
| What it counts | The percentage of FullStory sessions in the period that included one or more dead-click events, as detected by FullStory’s frustration-signal engine. |
| Sample type | Backend API data from FullStory, refreshed on the standard data refresh. |
| Why it matters | Dead clicks reveal where visitors expect interactivity and find none. They erode trust, slow task completion, and on a checkout or product page they directly cost conversions. |
| Reading the value | Compare the current period to the prior period. Pair with the Dead Click Hotspots card to see exactly which elements are responsible. |
| Currency | percent |
| Time window | 30D vsP |
| Alert trigger | >8% of sessions |
| Sentiment key | fs_dead_click_rate |
| Roles | owner, marketing |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your FullStory data. FullStory flags a dead-click event when a click lands on an element that triggers no measurable response; Vortex IQ divides the count of sessions containing at least one such event by total captured sessions for the period. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A representative reading of Dead Click Rate % for a typical merchant on FullStory. Suppose 10% of last month’s sessions contained a dead click, above the 8% guardrail. Opening the Dead Click Hotspots sibling shows the bulk of them landing on the product-image gallery, which visitors expect to zoom on tap but does not. The fix is to wire up the zoom interaction or remove the affordance. Without this card the merchant would only see lower product-page engagement with no obvious cause. For deeper investigation, use Vortex Mind to trace the upstream cause; for natural-language exploration, ask Ask Viq which templates carry the most dead clicks.Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why merchants reach for it |
|---|---|
fs_dead_click_hotspots | Names the exact elements receiving the most dead clicks. |
fs_rage_click_rate | Frustration sibling: repeated clicks on an unresponsive element. |
fs_error_click_rate | Frustration sibling: clicks that trigger a JS error. |
fs_frustration_score | The composite frustration number that dead clicks feed into. |
fs_worst_frustration_pages | Ranks pages by frustration so you know where to look first. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in FullStory’s own dashboard: FullStory surfaces dead clicks under its frustration-signals reporting and as a searchable event for building segments. Confirm period boundaries and segment filters match the Vortex IQ profile to reconcile cleanly. Why the Vortex IQ value may legitimately differ:| Reason | Direction | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Period boundary. Vortex IQ uses 30-day rolling by default; FullStory dashboards may use calendar periods. | Variable | Match the period range. |
| Time zone. FullStory uses the account time zone; Vortex IQ aligns to the merchant reporting time zone. | Marginal | Confirm time zone match. |
| Segment scope. A FullStory segment may exclude traffic the Vortex IQ profile includes, or vice versa. | Variable | Match segment and filter settings. |