Outbound Links: Authority vs Relevancy

[kjb1891]

As far as SEO is concerned I'd imagine most you would agree that outbound links CAN help increase rankings, but which do you think is more important when it comes to outbound links? Authority or relevancy?

For example, purely for SEO purposes, if you were to make an outbound link to a site such as Wikipedia, would you link to the homepage that has more authority and a higher ranking or would you link to a lower ranking but more relevant internal page on the site?

Just curious to see what other's experiences and opinions are.

 

[paulus]

Outbound links wont help you rank any further than the anchor text on your pages emphasizing keywords for you. The actual destination of the link is irrelevant (unless you're linking to something dodgy).

Just link to the kind of pages you yourself would like to visit. No, not those you perv.

 

[droplister]

I think if it was a matter of authority more people would linking to google for shits and giggles. I would link to gov/edu/nonprofit sites ranked for the term you're shooting for or a related term. I don't even know if outbound links help, but if they do might as well not help a competitor while helping yourself.