Overview
Outbound links are links from pages on your website to web pages on other websites.
All things being equal (which of course they never really are) pages with an outbound link or two rank higher than pages without outbound links.
Studies also show outbound links provide people a greater sense of credibility as other sites are being referenced.
Won’t you lose visitors?
What if your visitors leave via outbound links and never come back?
Configure your outbound links so when someone clicks on it opens the new page in a new browser tab.
Relevance
Be sure you link to relevant sites. If your site links to low quality content, people will think your website is low quality too.
Take the perspective that content curation is part of every post you publish.
Remember that by linking to quality website you assist your visitors. By linking to other sites you improve your reputation with search engines first, and readers second.
In Closing
If outbound links can spoil your reputation, is there any need to add outbound links? Yes.
A study of the effect of outbound links was conducted and demonstrates the positive impact of outbound links.
Links are a form of content and provide value. Use them, but use them effectively.
Need links?