Pausing a site - how to do this with minimum damage to SEO for period of pause

[akaandrew]

Hi - Have a site that needs to be paused due to the current global pandemic. Their production is about to go into shut down for 4 weeks (minimum), which means they wont be able to fulfil any online orders.

So what's the best way to pause the site, while minimising any long term impact to any SEO gains so far achieved?

• Banner / interstitial use informing of halted ordering
• Create a landing page on the site with long form content that the banner links to for customers to get more information about the temporary closure of site
• Removing add to cart, purchase and product pricing from product pages/site

Anything else that should be considered here?  I've seen reference to  application 503, but don't think this is a good idea. Any advice is appreciated.

[The_Video_Valley]

Have you considered letting people order whatever they want but adding a big message saying that orders can be delayed up to 4 weeks? That way you will not lose traffic and users who can wait will do so.

[JordanLowry]

That's a good idea - you could even display a banner ad that pops up anytime a user accesses the site "Shipping on all products delayed x weeks due to global pandemic". I think people would be pretty understanding.