Outgoing Links

Are there a benefit or not

[webdude]

I am always reading conflicting info on outbound links. On person will think it is a good idea for PR, another will say it is useless.

So what is it?

I have a site that I put some outbound links on my home page. These links are from some sites that are closely related to mine, but I thought, what the heck, they are of a use to my users. I also read, but cannot find at the moment, a thread on some advantages to outbound links in relation to PR. I can't remember exactly the reasoning, but the thread came up with some valid reasons for outbounds. Especially to sites that linked to you.

Now I am reading threads in which outbounds are considered useless.

So?

Thanks!

[Span]

but I thought, what the heck, they are of a use to my users.

webdude,
there's a long thread about the benefits of outbound links here:
[webmasterworld.com ]

[sem4u]

These links are from some sites that are closely related to mine, but I thought, what the heck, they are of a use to my users.

Well keep them then :)

[Skylo]

With linking people very often forget about the user and concentrate on that ridiculous green bar on the google bar. I believe that google has the technology to be able to judge if an outbound link from your site is page topic related, and therefore this can be beneficial to your users. I believe that deep linking that would be beneficial to the user is what google will want to focus on. For example, we run a travel site and recently i added a link to a specific page in the "international centre for disease control" site on one of my pages that dealt with travel to a specific area. I used my seo text for the page as the anchor text and i have moved up a whole page to be sat at number two for my keyword.

Link for your users and you will be okay in the long run. Information is king:-)

Happy Surfing
Skye

[webdude]

Thanks everyone for the answers, especially the link. That was what I was looking for.