Hide Text with CSS, Best Practice?

Can't you use simply display: none; like this

HTML

<div id="web-title">
   <a href="http://website.com" title="Website" rel="home">
       <span class="webname">Website Name</span>
   </a>
</div>

CSS

.webname {
   display: none;
}

Or how about playing with visibility if you are concerned to reserve the space

.webname {
   visibility: hidden;
}

Actually, a new technique came out recently. This article will answer your questions: http://www.zeldman.com/2012/03/01/replacing-the-9999px-hack-new-image-replacement

.hide-text {
  text-indent: 100%;
  white-space: nowrap;
  overflow: hidden;
}

It is accessible, an has better performance than -99999px.

Update: As @deathlock mentions in the comment area, the author of the fix above (Scott Kellum), has suggested using a transparent font: http://scottkellum.com/2013/10/25/the-new-kellum-method.html.

the way most developers will do is:

<div id="web-title">
   <a href="http://website.com" title="Website" rel="home">
       <span class="webname">Website Name</span>
   </a>
</div>

.webname {
   display: none;
}

I used to do it too, until i realized that you are hiding content for devices. aka screen-readers and such.

So by passing:

#web-title span {text-indent: -9000em;}

you ensure that the text still is readable.

you can simply make it transparent

{
   width: 20px;
   height: 20px;
   overflow: hidden; 
   color:transparent;
}