diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9532023..084db75 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## [1.3.2] - 2023-12-01
+### Fixed
+* When creating a `CssSelector` or `XPathQuery` instance with invalid selector/query syntax, an `InvalidDomQueryException` is now immediately thrown. This change is considered to be not only non-breaking, but actually a fix, because the `CssSelector` would otherwise throw an exception later when the `apply()` method is called. The `XPathQuery` would silently return no result without notifying you of the invalid query and generate a PHP warning.
+
 ## [1.3.1] - 2023-11-30
 ### Fixed
 * Support usage with the new Symfony major version v7.
diff --git a/src/Steps/Html/CssSelector.php b/src/Steps/Html/CssSelector.php
index 857ba31..65b2db2 100644
--- a/src/Steps/Html/CssSelector.php
+++ b/src/Steps/Html/CssSelector.php
@@ -2,10 +2,28 @@
 
 namespace Crwlr\Crawler\Steps\Html;
 
+use Crwlr\Crawler\Steps\Html\Exceptions\InvalidDomQueryException;
+use Symfony\Component\CssSelector\CssSelectorConverter;
+use Symfony\Component\CssSelector\Exception\ExpressionErrorException;
+use Symfony\Component\CssSelector\Exception\SyntaxErrorException;
 use Symfony\Component\DomCrawler\Crawler;
 
 final class CssSelector extends DomQuery
 {
+    /**
+     * @throws InvalidDomQueryException
+     */
+    public function __construct(string $query)
+    {
+        try {
+            (new CssSelectorConverter())->toXPath($query);
+        } catch (ExpressionErrorException|SyntaxErrorException $exception) {
+            throw InvalidDomQueryException::fromSymfonyException($query, $exception);
+        }
+
+        parent::__construct($query);
+    }
+
     public function filter(Crawler $domCrawler): Crawler
     {
         return $domCrawler->filter($this->query);
diff --git a/src/Steps/Html/Exceptions/InvalidDomQueryException.php b/src/Steps/Html/Exceptions/InvalidDomQueryException.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c414b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Steps/Html/Exceptions/InvalidDomQueryException.php
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Crwlr\Crawler\Steps\Html\Exceptions;
+
+use Exception;
+use Symfony\Component\CssSelector\Exception\ExpressionErrorException;
+use Symfony\Component\CssSelector\Exception\SyntaxErrorException;
+
+class InvalidDomQueryException extends Exception
+{
+    protected string $query = '';
+
+    public static function make(string $message, string $domQuery): self
+    {
+        $exception = new self($message);
+
+        $exception->setDomQuery($domQuery);
+
+        return $exception;
+    }
+
+    public static function fromSymfonyException(
+        string $domQuery,
+        ExpressionErrorException|SyntaxErrorException $originalException,
+    ): self {
+        $exception = new self(
+            $originalException->getMessage(),
+            $originalException->getCode(),
+            $originalException,
+        );
+
+        $exception->setDomQuery($domQuery);
+
+        return $exception;
+    }
+
+    public function setDomQuery(string $domQuery): void
+    {
+        $this->query = $domQuery;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/Steps/Html/GetLink.php b/src/Steps/Html/GetLink.php
index 9d212e7..a6c0b05 100644
--- a/src/Steps/Html/GetLink.php
+++ b/src/Steps/Html/GetLink.php
@@ -32,7 +32,12 @@ class GetLink extends Step
 
     protected bool $withFragment = true;
 
-    public function __construct(protected ?string $selector = null) {}
+    protected null|string|CssSelector $selector = null;
+
+    public function __construct(null|string|CssSelector $selector = null)
+    {
+        $this->selector = is_string($selector) ? new CssSelector($selector) : $selector;
+    }
 
     public static function isSpecialNonHttpLink(Crawler $linkElement): bool
     {
@@ -65,7 +70,11 @@ protected function invoke(mixed $input): Generator
 
         $selector = $this->selector ?? 'a';
 
-        foreach ($input->filter($selector) as $link) {
+        if (is_string($selector)) {
+            $selector = new CssSelector($selector);
+        }
+
+        foreach ($selector->filter($input) as $link) {
             $linkUrl = $this->getLinkUrl($link);
 
             if ($linkUrl) {
diff --git a/src/Steps/Html/GetLinks.php b/src/Steps/Html/GetLinks.php
index f218147..04ac2d9 100644
--- a/src/Steps/Html/GetLinks.php
+++ b/src/Steps/Html/GetLinks.php
@@ -19,7 +19,11 @@ protected function invoke(mixed $input): Generator
 
         $selector = $this->selector ?? 'a';
 
-        foreach ($input->filter($selector) as $link) {
+        if (is_string($selector)) {
+            $selector = new CssSelector($selector);
+        }
+
+        foreach ($selector->filter($input) as $link) {
             $linkUrl = $this->getLinkUrl($link);
 
             if ($linkUrl) {
diff --git a/src/Steps/Html/XPathQuery.php b/src/Steps/Html/XPathQuery.php
index ba484b6..ddf9b0c 100644
--- a/src/Steps/Html/XPathQuery.php
+++ b/src/Steps/Html/XPathQuery.php
@@ -2,12 +2,48 @@
 
 namespace Crwlr\Crawler\Steps\Html;
 
+use Crwlr\Crawler\Steps\Html\Exceptions\InvalidDomQueryException;
+use DOMDocument;
+use DOMXPath;
 use Symfony\Component\DomCrawler\Crawler;
 
 class XPathQuery extends DomQuery
 {
+    /**
+     * @throws InvalidDomQueryException
+     */
+    public function __construct(string $query)
+    {
+        $this->validateQuery($query);
+
+        parent::__construct($query);
+    }
+
     public function filter(Crawler $domCrawler): Crawler
     {
         return $domCrawler->filterXPath($this->query);
     }
+
+    /**
+     * @throws InvalidDomQueryException
+     */
+    private function validateQuery(string $query): void
+    {
+        // Temporarily set a new error handler, so checking an invalid XPath query does not generate a PHP warning.
+        $previousHandler = set_error_handler(function ($errno, $errstr) {
+            if ($errno === E_WARNING && $errstr === 'DOMXPath::evaluate(): Invalid expression') {
+                return true;
+            }
+
+            return false;
+        });
+
+        if ((new DOMXPath(new DOMDocument()))->evaluate($query) === false) {
+            set_error_handler($previousHandler);
+
+            throw InvalidDomQueryException::make('Invalid XPath query', $query);
+        } else {
+            set_error_handler($previousHandler);
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/tests/Steps/Html/CssSelectorTest.php b/tests/Steps/Html/CssSelectorTest.php
index 6e96d25..01bcf60 100644
--- a/tests/Steps/Html/CssSelectorTest.php
+++ b/tests/Steps/Html/CssSelectorTest.php
@@ -3,10 +3,15 @@
 namespace tests\Steps\Html;
 
 use Crwlr\Crawler\Steps\Html\CssSelector;
+use Crwlr\Crawler\Steps\Html\Exceptions\InvalidDomQueryException;
 use Symfony\Component\DomCrawler\Crawler;
 
 use function tests\helper_getSimpleListHtml;
 
+it('throws an exception when created with an invalid CSS Selector', function ($selector) {
+    new CssSelector($selector);
+})->throws(InvalidDomQueryException::class)->with(['.foo;', '.foo:before']);
+
 test('The apply method returns a string for a single match', function () {
     $html = '<div class="item">test</div>';
 
diff --git a/tests/Steps/Html/XPathQueryTest.php b/tests/Steps/Html/XPathQueryTest.php
index 0694048..e74b66d 100644
--- a/tests/Steps/Html/XPathQueryTest.php
+++ b/tests/Steps/Html/XPathQueryTest.php
@@ -2,11 +2,16 @@
 
 namespace tests\Steps\Html;
 
+use Crwlr\Crawler\Steps\Html\Exceptions\InvalidDomQueryException;
 use Crwlr\Crawler\Steps\Html\XPathQuery;
 use Symfony\Component\DomCrawler\Crawler;
 
 use function tests\helper_getSimpleListHtml;
 
+it('throws an exception when created with an invalid XPath query', function () {
+    new XPathQuery('//a/@@bob/uncle');
+})->throws(InvalidDomQueryException::class);
+
 test('The apply method returns a string for a single match', function () {
     $xml = '<item>test</item>';