I am using the html below
<a href=""><div class="logo"><span class="whologo">hyperlinked text </span>
</div></a>
the problem i am having is that the only way to remove underline from the span text is using a:link{text-decoration:none;} but this removes underlines from ALL links from the whole page
I have tried
a.logo:link{text-decoration:none;}
but it doesnt remove the hyperlink from the span element.
You have a wrong hierarchy there and bad element selection. In your case, the most accurate CSS would be:
But I suggest this approach:
And CSS:
Or include the span if needed (but only if the span element has underlines, like Hans pointed out in the comment):