SEO question about lots of outbound links

[jordanchris]

I'm considering adding a directory page to one of my websites that lists local groups from all around the world. I haven't kept up with SEO in a long time, but I recall (many) years ago that having a lot of outgoing links and very few (if any) inbound connections was a terrible thing. Is this still the case, or have search engine algorithms figured out that this can be beneficial to site visitors?

What effect will adding a page like this have on my SEO?

[KaviKardos]

Hey @jordanchris! When adding any outbound links to a page, the most important question to ask yourself is whether users will gain meaningful and significant value from those links. Adding spammy outbound links to your site is harmful in a similar way to receiving lots of spammy inbound links - it puts your site in a bad overall "link neighborhood" and often causes search engines to assume your site itself is of low quality.

If you think your site users will value these links, go ahead and include them - but consider other ways you can demonstrate your site's authority and trustworthiness at the same time. Are there organic and natural ways you might earn links from other authoritative sites in your industry? Is there a need for high-quality content within your industry that your site can reasonably contribute? Your outbound links are just one part of Google's total perception of your site, so beefing up your E-A-T signals in other ways can help offset any potentially questionable actions you're testing.

BTW, "testing" is a good way to approach something like this. If you add this directory page and find that your site seems to be suffering in the eyes of the search engines within 3-6 months of the change, consider reverting or altering the decision.