Is ok to add 'no follow' to every outbound link?

[nick-name123]

How do you handle outbound links from your site?.. do you no follow them all to be on the safe side?

[PIXUS]

I do not think it is a good idea to no follow ALL outbound links, but It seems like a lot of big websites (like Yell) are doing this now.

[DeanAndrews]

What's your thought behind the question. In my opinion telling Google that this is a no-follow link indicates that the receiving site is not trusted.

If your happy to link to them then you should be happy to allow follow - if that's an actual term

[nick-name123]

My thought is really that if one of the sites we link to on a normal basis gets penalised/banned by google (we link to big sites but dont forget BMW scenario), then we could be penalised in turn for linking to them

[randfish]

You're throwing out the baby with the bathwater (to use a colloquialism). External pointing, followed links are not only good for the web as a whole, they're good for YOUR site, too. We've seen numerous examples of sites that began opening their external linking policies and received greater search traffic and rankings as a result. The most famous of these in the NYTimes, which Marshall Simmonds talked about in his Whiteboard Friday here: http://moz.com/blog/convincing-upper-management-aka-justifying-your-existence-whiteboard-friday

I'd also suggest watching Cyrus' video on the topic of linking externally here: http://moz.com/blog/external-linking-good-for-seo-whiteboard-friday

And finally, I'd point out that sites that never link out with followed links create the perception that they are not generous and thus, not deserving, of links of their own. You might point out that only a fraction of web users know what a nofollow link is, and my response would be that those are the same people who control most of the websites and links.

All in all, I'd strongly advise against this (and Google does, too!).