If provide links to external sites from my website, will it be good or bad for SEO? How many links to external sites is considered link farming?
Yes it would be relevant. It would have to do with my website niche. But if it is not good for SEO or will hurt my SERP's then I dont want to do it. Will search engines penalize me for it?
I like linking out. I think that search engines abhor a cul-de-sacs, and I think that they use your outbound links much in the same way (but not to the same degree) as they use your inbound links to determine theme, relevancy and quality. However, it's important that you link out correctly and for the right reason. Are you linking out to genuine, helpful sites that users will want to visit? And are your outbound links embedded nicely into your content? And are you only linking out to a few, limited, high quality resources? If so - then link away to your heart's content. But if you're building a big long links page with 100 links on it, or you're putting footer links on your site to porn pages in exchange for cash, or you're building a directory site, then don't!
Thanks for the reply on that. I have no intentions of having a ton of links or links to "bad" sites that offer little to nothing to my visitors. The links would in fact be to great resources that have to do with my niche. No more than 10 links tops. THANKS!
if you are linking to sites with no more than 10 links out on the page your link is on, they will be powerful links provided the external site has good rank/authority and is related to your niche. Good Luck!