Text links are the best way to link your pages together. They offer a few different option to help optimize your pages and Google says in there Webmaster Guidelines "Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link." and"Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images."

Static Text Links

A "static" link is one which is normal text or html, that a bot can find and follow. It must also contain actual written text so a search engine can determine what kind of information the link is pointint to.

Some sites have all their site navigation done in Javascript, Java or Flash, which means the links are hidden from the bots, Search bots have trouble following these kind of links. Using Static Static links will ensure proper indexing by the Search Bots; Here is an example of the XHTML code for two forms of Static Text Link:

<a href="example.aspx">This is a  static text link</a>

Images can also be considered Static links if they use the alt="Text Here" Property.

<a href="example.aspx"><img src="Example.gif" alt="Link to Example"></a>

Link Title

The goal of the link title is to help users predict what will happen if they follow a link. The text in the title property will show up when the mouse hovers over the link.

Appropriate information to include in a link title can be:

• name of the site the link will lead to (if different from the current site)
• added details about the kind of information to be found on the destination page and keywords for search engines and how it relates to the anchor text.

Link titles should be less than 80 characters, however shorter link titles are better. Focus on keyword phrases of 3 words or less. It is much easier to get higher placement with more specific three word phrases then with just a word or two.

Do not just repeats the same text as is already shown in the anchor. I like to use full phrases for example:  link anchor will reed SEO but the title will read Search Engine Optimization. Get creative with link titles but always center them around keyword.

Open link in new window

Target = "_blank" added to the link will cause the link to open in a new window. It should never be used for internal linking. A good place to use it is when you need to link to a external site for more information on a perticular subject.

Nofollow Links

Adding rel="nofollow" to a hyperlink instruct search engines that the hyperlink should not influrence the ranking of a given site.  Be careful not to overuse this tag, many webmaster including myself shy away from any site even hinting at using them. Two uses come to mind as exemption to this rule, blogs and classifieds ads that include a url field. Extensive SEO does not use any rel="nofollow" in any of the links on this site.