Redirecting, then redirecting back

[GRIP-SEO]

Hey, mozzers!  My first question ever...  I have a client who has (fictitionally) WickerPatioHomeStore.com, which features wicker home decor.  Not too long ago, they wanted a shorter, easier URL, so they redirected to another domain they own, WickerPatio.com (again, fictional).  They saw somewhat of a drop in traffic, and wonder if there's a correlation with the words "home store" not being in their domain any more.  When considering the two, I figure that relevant factors would be age of domains, history of content of the domains, and inbound links to each domain.  Any thoughts on other things to consider?  Thanks very much!!  ~ Scott

[Highland]

301 isn't perfect. It transfers most rank, but not all. It also takes time because Google has to catch up in indexing both the old and new. In the meantime, it's possible your new site gets hit with a duplicate content penalty.

Make sure any link partners you might have link to the new url and not the old.

Look at your traffic before and after. Did the missing keywords bring in a lot of traffic overall? My suspicion is they probably didn't but, still, you probably did lose some rank by not having the words there. As long as your content is solid for the missing words, you should still do well.

Domain age is no longer a major ranking factor. It's possible to make a brand new URL rank well now.