dealing with a site that is down, what's best?

I'm mostly concerned about the incoming links...

[Craig_F]

I have site that is going to be down for about a week. What can I do to make sure this down time hurts as little as possible? I'm mostly worried about all the deep links that will be 404'ing during this time.

[jdMorgan]

Why should the site be "down"? Why not host it elsewhere or set up a holding page and temporarily 302-Redirect all requests to that page?

I think the "right" answer depends on how and why the site is "down."

Jim

[Craig_F]

The site is down becuase my host managed to delete my account and it's going to take a while to get it all back online.

I have a holding page there now for the home page. In addition, I've managed to get one major section of the site back online.

So, I now have about 50% of this problem solved. I think the remaining 50% should be 302 redirected to the holding page, but I'm not sure how to redirect an entire section of a site like that, AND I'm also wondering if that is even possible to do while my developer is trying to get that portion of the site live again.

[isitreal]

<<< So, I now have about 50% of this problem solved.

You won't have your problem solved until you find a new webhoster. 'Accidentally deleting' your website isn't part of most professional hosting packages, and not being able to get it back up basically instantly within 10 minutes is completely unacceptable.

As soon as you get all the code from the site switch hosters immediately, this is absolutely unacceptable hosting. There is no excuse for this type of thing.

[webmastertexas]

You won't have your problem solved until you find a new webhoster. 'Accidentally deleting' your website isn't part of most professional hosting packages, and not being able to get it back up basically instantly within 10 minutes is completely unacceptable.

I have to agree. This does seem like a shabby web hosting. "Accidentally" deleting an entire site reeks of poor service. Get a refund and go to someone else.