WP template version vs. html version of my site

[Mikhail]

Hi!
A consultant, that I am about to hire suggested to redo my 12 year old site ( wowballoons.com), using a Wordpress ready to use template. His argument was it's easier to do SEO on a WP site. A little research seems to show that there are several aspects of SEO that WP takes care of "automatically", or with very little effort.

My question is, is it better to suffer with editing some template to meet our needs, learn WP and then enjoy the the benefits in terms of SEO, or keep the site as is and do whatever WP would by myself.

Thank you!

[tstolber]

Do it your self. Wordpress will require that you have different URLs, this will mean that the existing URLs will need redirects to the Wordpress URLs. This will cause some disruption and loss of traffic, It can be gained, bit I would prefer to keep an existing 12 year domain and URLs and build in a CMS system behind the scenes to manage things - if they are at a level where this is required.
Wordpress doesn't really have any SEO benefits - it just does a few things automatically to make an SEOs life a little bit easier. I prefer not to use wordpress personally. Also, a lot of SEO is really about what goes on off-site so wordpress its self and the structure it creates wont do you wonders.

[Glenn Kilpatric]

I did something similar about 3 years back. Best thing I ever did (not primarily for seo reasons, but for ease of adding and managing content). However, make sure all the 301's are in place before you dare go live. You will loose ground if you dont and that can be quite a traumatic experience. Yoast' seo plugin is worth having should you go to wp.

[Test-ok]

What tstolber said. Your site is already built, I would create a new sitewide internal link to a blog and install WP for it, (wowballoons.com/blog) which would allow you to add additional content easily (not for seo purposes per say but for adding future content)
There's a few things you could do with your on-page...I'd also take advantage of alt text for your internal link images, clean up your titles and optimize the locations you cover. You can use the blog to help with the location part.

Opps...looks like you already have a blog attached to the site, start using it. Your only using it for pictures and a brief description...get some content in there... balloon content.

[ALorenzo]

If you really want an overhaul, look into the Code Igniter framework. It allows you to set up a content management system fairly transparently and would allow you to keep the same URLs in place.

[chiragparekh]

In WP, you won't have to be dependent on web developer for any single site-wide content changes this is the biggest advantage of CMS like WP.

If you don't have enough HTML knowledge, WP can help you to manage your webpages. it enables you to update title and optimize your text easily and fast.

[limeisbetter]

I think you'd better stick to the initial tactics. If you want to create a new and completely different blog in fact, the course is better to choose WP. As you know it is good and very easy platform
in general I agree with tstolber
thanks