Outbound dofollow links vs outbound nofollow links

[serenoo]

I am creating a page for my website. I am adding resources/links to the page. I have to decide if such links will be follow or nofollow and I thought that adding an outbound dofollow link will not bring me any advantage, but only problems because if one day the website I am linking to will became a bad website I will have problems with google. So my questions is: what is the advantage of adding a dofollow external link vs nofollow external link?

[aristotle]

In my opinion your shouldn't outlink at all to a site that might become "bad", as you put it.

And generally I think the best policy is to use dofollow outlinks instead of nofollow, but make sure that they go to good sites, preferably authority sites.

[gn_wendy]

the links (outbound and internal) that you place from a page signal relevance and affinity. it tells google that the pages(content) are related to each other, in some way. if and when i place links - i always follow them. however, I only place links that are relevant to the content and helpful to users.

the only links i nofollow are links I am forced to place (for instance links placed for legal reasons) or links to pages i feel are irrelevant, but that the client/management is adamant about including. I try and avoid it, but sometimes you can't.

[serenoo]

Aristotele you are not able to prevent the future. I saw many websites that disappear and I do not know who will buy them. An authority website that I link today can became bad tomorrow and I cannot check every day my outbound links.

gn_wendy
as said I link to relevance and affinity websites as you told me, but what is the benefit of linking a dofollow website vs nofollow one?
Please tell me the benefits.

[piatkow]

An authority website that I link today can became bad tomorrow and I cannot check every day my outbound links.

There is software that will let you check for broken links but that misses parking pages and domains that have changed hands. I used to be webmaster for a community arts organisation and maintained a directory of around 200 links to local groups, performers and suppliers. I made a point of eyballing every link at least once every 2 years to make sure that it was still valid and that the site was still active. I also put a message on the directory asking users to report dead links to me linking to a contact form.

[aristotle]

Serenoo - The main reason I prefer to use dofollow is because I think it may help my page's rankings for the keywords in the anchor text of the outlink.

Also, you're right when you say that any site could eventually disappear or be drasticly changed. But you can never totally avoid all risk, so you just have to try to be careful and take whatever precautions you can.