Should I no follow all external links?

[MarloSchneider]

I have worked with a few different SEO firms lately and a lot of them have recommended on the sites I was working on to "no-follow" all external links on the site.

On one hand this traps all the link equity/Pagerank.  On the other I would think this practice is frowned upon by Google.

What are some opinions on this?

[Michael-Goode]

Hi Spencer,

I did have the occasion that I no-followed an external link that was on the footer of the website, otherwise quite some link juice would of been wasted.

However, whenever I do new blog posts I make all external links do-followed within the blog post. By doing this you could let the sites who you linked out to know that they received a link, and the will enjoy the fact that it is do-followed. They might even link back or share the blog post on their social media accounts.

[EGOL]

On one hand this traps all the link equity/Pagerank.

This is not true.

If you nofollow a link the PR evaporates.

And... if you link only to good, trusted sites then why nofollow anything?  It tells google that you link only to untrusted sites.

[bradkrussell]

This. I asked the same question many moons ago and EGOL wrote a really good reply along the lines of "You indicating to Google that you're linking to untrustworthy sites. Why link to them at all then?"

Anyway, it changed my opinion of external links. I ALWAYS make them followed, there is really no point having them no followed.

[EGOL]

I link out to dozens of websites every week and every one of those links are followed.

[activitysuper]

Hi EGOL,

This caught my eye - 'If you nofollow a link the PR evaporates.'

When someone nofollow's a link, in most cases the person doing so thinks they are stopping PR from leaking out of the site.

If it evaporates, no one gets the PR?

Maybe I have got the wrong end of the stick here?

[EGOL]

That is true. If you nofollow a link, nobody gets the PR.