I have a forum and my users like to post alot of links to different stories and videos all over the net... I don't have too many links coming in though. Every day there are probably 20 different posts that have a link to somewhere. Will google's algorithm possibly be penalizing me for having tons of out links? My forum got PR0 yet it has been getting lots of users and there are more inlinks than some of my other sites that are newer that google gave PR to. Am I getting screwed by a bad algorithm that is intended to punish link sellers?
i would say as long as you dont have more than 10 outbound links per page you should not get penalised, i have an article directory that i use for advertising and nearly every page has upto 10 outbound links and that got a PR2 from PR0 this update, so keep working on your inbound links.
I would have said no, but my forum is new with hardly any outgoing links and only 900 posts and i got a PR3, why?
If the posted links are not going to link farms, banned mesothelioma or viagra etc. sites then it's ok.
SE get info more about your site’s niche and quality so outbound link is somewhat important, Google will not penalize unless you link with bad neighborhood IMO.
having too many outgoing links is not a problem, it will not get penalized as long as you know that you are not doing any black hat strategies.
If your outbound links use the ref="nofollow" attribute in your hyperlinks you have nothing to worry about, this will make Google not follow the link or register it as an outbound link.
I was hoping to not have to do a nofollow but it seems like google may have inadvertantly made it an important defence strategy???
It is the safest way, if it's a good link then don't use it. Trust me, if you had 100 useful and very relevant links on your page then your not going to get penalized. It also depends if those sites link back or not.
I wouldn't worry about it. and I wouldn't put the nofollow on the links, unless you are getting lots of spam