Big traffic change for top URL but DECREASE (not yay)

[Kickedout]

I got in webmaster tools (google) a warning

Big traffic change for top URL but DECREASE (not yay)
saying the url receives less traffic. I see that page well ranked thought my overall income has dropped dramatically to 55% compared to last year for same month.

What is it exactly and what should I do?

[tedster]

I'd say you need to analyze deeper - unless that page's traffic doesn't really matter to your site. It's basically an informational message, not a warning.

[edited by: tedster at 8:18 pm (utc) on May 31, 2012]

[Sand]

This doesn't necessarily mean that your traffic has dropped organically.

I recently got this message -- for years, we had included a link to a certain page in every email newsletter we sent out. A month or two ago, we decided to stop including that link in the newsletter. Since email was the only real traffic driver to the page, visits slowed to a trickle.

Google Webmaster Tools alerted me to the traffic drop, so I can say with certainty that this alert doesn't necessarily have anything to do with organic traffic.

[Kickedout]

Thanks tester. It's an important page, but my research just confirms the traffic dropped, what else? I guess is better to know it than ignore it, but what exactly can you do now?

[Robert Charlton]

Just a note that we've published a separate thread about the more general question raised here, about Webmaster Tools monitoring non-search traffic and what the mechanism for that might be. See...

Webmaster Tools and non-search traffic... interesting comment
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4460383.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[Kickedout]

Thanks. Any tips on how to face the task of gaining more traffic ?(or at least recover some)