SEO

Using 'page #' as your link text will not harm your site Swan. I would leave it as this.

If the crosses on each seperate page were of a particular type then it would be logical to use the cross type as the anchor text. As it appears that the crosses are not categorised then it makes sense to use 'Page #', human-friendly

I don't want to dishearten you, but SEO for most people results in a trickle of traffic which results in ...not much at all.

To get serious you need to think differently and get your message out to a lot of people.

Here are three things that WORK!
1) Viral Marketing - invest in some software or ebooks which promote your site and distribute them via bittorrent. This technique is very under-utilised and worth doing.

2) Legal Opt in Bulk Email - send messages to millions of people who already exhibit buying behavior in your field. ie you might have a technology site, so you send mail to people who wish to hear about technology products, your conversion rate is therefore very good.

3) Spam - ILLEGAL, ANNOYING and STUPID!!!. It works however..but honestly why why you do it when targeted optin and Legal alternatives also work.

I have been involved in the legal optin version of bulk marketing for a long time and I have seen many webmasters go from pathetic sales to 6 figure incomes.

If you are serious and have references I can help you set up an optin campaign. This is for people who wish to run their website as a full time source of Income
http://www.bulkemailpro.us.tt
bep@beer.com (I await the torrent of Vigara Spam!!)

Before everyone one starts yelling spammer spammer! Let it be known that I am totally against spam and have contributed to anti spam projects. Unfortunately spammers aways claim to be legal bulkers and have caused damage to my industry