Old Cache Dates - Cause?

[kdobson99]

I recall this being an issue several years ago for me but haven't had it for a long time. Virtually my entire site is now showing cache dates from early August. I know that cache dates were much more recent until a few days ago. My rankings have fallen and many pages are no longer in the index... often those added since early August.

I did a search here and find a bunch of topics on this from years ago, but can't find any recent opinions on what causes this and how to solve it. I recall in the past when I had this problem it was a "don't worry about it all will be ok in a few days" kind of thing and usually preceded a jump in rankings. I often found it coincided with getting some new good quality links. Is this still the common wisdom for this type of issue around here? Or is there something else I should be aware of?

Thanks

[Robert Charlton]

I've occasionally noticed that old cache dates can precede an update. If lots of people are seeing them, then it may be that Google is reverting to an old database while it rebuilds a current one.