Putting HTML inside Html.ActionLink(), plus No Link Text?

Instead of using Html.ActionLink you can render a url via Url.Action

<a href="<%= Url.Action("Index", "Home") %>"><span>Text</span></a>
<a href="@Url.Action("Index", "Home")"><span>Text</span></a>

And to do a blank url you could have

<a href="<%= Url.Action("Index", "Home") %>"></a>
<a href="@Url.Action("Index", "Home")"></a>

A custom HtmlHelper extension is another option. Note: ParameterDictionary is my own type. You could substitute a RouteValueDictionary but you'd have to construct it differently.

public static string ActionLinkSpan( this HtmlHelper helper, string linkText, string actionName, string controllerName, object htmlAttributes )
{
    TagBuilder spanBuilder = new TagBuilder( "span" );
    spanBuilder.InnerHtml = linkText;

    return BuildNestedAnchor( spanBuilder.ToString(), string.Format( "/{0}/{1}", controllerName, actionName ), htmlAttributes );
}

private static string BuildNestedAnchor( string innerHtml, string url, object htmlAttributes )
{
    TagBuilder anchorBuilder = new TagBuilder( "a" );
    anchorBuilder.Attributes.Add( "href", url );
    anchorBuilder.MergeAttributes( new ParameterDictionary( htmlAttributes ) );
    anchorBuilder.InnerHtml = innerHtml;

    return anchorBuilder.ToString();
}