External links can be a touchy subject for some designers and companies. I can't tell you how many sites I've worked on where the prevailing mindset was that linking away from your site was bad. I have been guilty of this feeling as well, as when you're paid through the page views that you get to your own site, it can be difficult to link away from your site. "What if they never come back?" a little voice in my head will cry as I post outbound links.
There is also the fear that external links will somehow penalize you with search engines. But according to Google, outbound links won't affect your search engine score. Instead, what will affect your ranking is if you link to spammy sites which reduces your site's own credibility. It's not the link that might lower your ranking, but rather how your readers perceive it. You should also disclose when you're linking to a site that you have a financial deal with. And Google recommends that you use the rel="nofollow" attribute on those links (as well as disclosure) so that Google doesn't pass along PageRank and your readers know of any possible conflict of interest.
What do you think of external links? Do you use them only on certain areas of your site or are you constantly linking out to anyone and everyone?
