My text only version look something like this: Link1Link2Link3Link4Link5Link6Link7Link8Link9Link10Link11Link12Link13 Link14 Link15 Link16 Link17 Link18 Link19 Link20 Link21 <h1>text</h1> TEXT Do all these link's take much away from h1 and TEXT? Or it doesn't really matter much are link14-link21 before of after h1 and TEXT? Something like this: Link1Link2Link3Link4Link5Link6Link7Link8Link9Link10Link11Link12Link13 <h1>text</h1> TEXT Link14 Link15 Link16 Link17 Link18 Link19 Link20 Link21
Unless your links are internal navigation, then - imo - your site would look very spammy having all these external links on a page. Is this your home page? If so your site could get a penalty - although I have seen an older site that is nothing but a lionk farm for its owner and still does ok for its keyword.
Yes. How about this SEO ranking factor "Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words in HTML on the Page" from SEOmoz. My first keyword (not counting title), will be somewhere about 100-150 words. Is it big minus?
It's not a huge deal. Google will work out it's your navigation (I assume it's the same on all pages?) The important thing is to have your keywords/subject in the H1 tags... before any other "real" content on the page.
Hey, I believe that the way you mentioned link structure of your website, it's not good, because Search engines algorithm working on their norms and your structure just avoiding that norms.