Can I safely remove a "links" page

[meelosh]

I have a site that is about 10 yrs old and was built originally by someone else and they added a "links" page to the site to either get reciprocal links or to send pr from this site to other sites they were working on. I am not happy with most of these outbound links and want to know if i can safely remove the whole page or if i should just remove the links i am most concerned about or should i nofollow all. there are about 45 outbound links on this page and just want to know what is the safest way to handle this....tks

[creeking]

how many of those 45 sites have links back to yours?

[meelosh]

only about 50% of them.

[piatkow]

More importently are the links relevant to your visitors' use of your site?

[meelosh]

some of them are fine and do link back as well as add value to the visitors experience.....so these i am happy to keep. However there are quite a few that could be questionable neighborhoods and these are the ones i want to weed out. So maybe the page can stay but can i just remove the questionable few that i don't approve off or will it be better to nofollow them. I guess the better question is ....will it be harmful to remove a large amount of outbound links that have been on a site for many years (with regards to search impact)

[SilverSpirit]

A good old Links page is still useful, both for SEO and for your site's visitors. It does require some maintenance work, though.

[n0tSEO]

However there are quite a few that could be questionable neighborhoods and these are the ones i want to weed out.

If these links don't add value to your site and you don't want them around, by all means get rid of them.

But if you have a relationship with these websites' owners, make sure to discuss the change with them first. Maybe there are other ways to help each other without having you keep unwanted links.