I would like to put up a splash page and have all site links (posts, pages, etc.) to redirect to this splash.
I know there are a number of ways to create a splash (i.e. page template in WordPress and set the front page as this template or even create an index.html file at the root of my WordPress install and rename the index.php file.)
What’s the best way to accomplish this? Are there particular .htaccess commands that would be better option?
I’d usually use the the Maintenance Mode plugin which also includes some nice headers features and is easy to activate/deactive. Using the settings, if you want a custom splash page, you just put a 503.php file in the active theme and then set the plugin to use that as the redirect landing page.