There was a good post by Matt McGee regarding linking out to other websites and the affect that would have on your own in terms of ranking.  I tend to agree with Matt that outbound linking is important and is a part of Google‘s algorithm when ranking a website.  There has always been a theory that you want your website to be at the center of its content universe.  While this is great in terms of inbound links it is also important to understand that a good expert will always name their sources.  If Kansas City SEO wants to be the center of the universe for SEO in Kansas City then we need to have people who link to the site for those terms.  In turn, we need to link to other sites that support our conversation and strengthen our viewpoint.

There was also talk in the article and comments about the strength of links coming from social media sites vs. those coming from a blog.  I tend to agree that links coming from blogs are important and are generally not flagged for nofollow like links on social sites.  This said, I still think it is important for people to understand the perception of social media sites by people who surf the web.  Social sites are enjoyable, they keep people connected, they allow people to share information, and it is where people tend to spend the majority of their time online.  Google and the other search engines recognize this and pay special attention to links being shared on those platforms.  Even though they are nofollow, I can assure you they are being followed.  If you want to, you can test this using a brand new website.  Only alert people to the website via social links and they will most certainly be followed by the crawlers.

So in conclusion, share the love.  When you reference someone else’s work on your website or in the social space, link to them.  You would like the same from them.  This not only generates goodwill for your website, it helps signal to the engines that your site is in fact a center of information in your industry.