Html.ActionLink as a button or an image, not a link

Late response but you could just keep it simple and apply a CSS class to the htmlAttributes object.

<%= Html.ActionLink("Button Name", "Index", null, new { @class="classname" }) %>

and then create a class in your stylesheet

a.classname
{
    background: url(../Images/image.gif) no-repeat top left;
     display: block;
     width: 150px;
     height: 150px;
     text-indent: -9999px; /* hides the link text */
}

You can't do this with Html.ActionLink. You should use Url.RouteUrl and use the URL to construct the element you want.

<button onclick="location.href='@Url.Action("NewCustomer", "Customers")'">Checkout >></button>

Even later response, but I just ran into a similar issue and ended up writing my own Image link HtmlHelper extension.

You can find an implementation of it on my blog in the link above.

Just added in case someone is hunting down an implementation.

Do what Mehrdad says - or use the url helper from an HtmlHelper extension method like Stephen Walther describes here and make your own extension method which can be used to render all of your links.

Then it will be easy to render all links as buttons/anchors or whichever you prefer - and, most importantly, you can change your mind later when you find out that you actually prefer some other way of making your links.

For Material Design Lite and MVC:

<a class="mdl-navigation__link" href='@Url.Action("MyAction", "MyController")'>Link Name</a>