My Dilemma - Upgrade current Custom PHP site OR go with Wordpress?

Here is the dilemma... I have been running http://www.vetnetsupplies.com since 2004 and have finally decided that I need to update the site design and other elements. The site currently has a custom CMS which works great and is secure.

The website was hit when the Google Penguin update which arrived early this year and probably lost about 2/3 of traffic probably due to mass amount of links but not quality links. As part of updating the site I want to make the site more SEO friendly to include seo friendly urls, H1, H2 and H3 tags throughout the site, unique meta titles and descriptions for every page.

I am tossing up between keeping the current site and hire a php developer to make the following updates or switching to Wordpress which I recently started designing/developing:

Option 1: Hire PHP Developer to do the following

Intergrate a new clean interface I designed at 980px wide.
Make site responsive
SEO Freindly URL's, H1, H2 and H3 tags throughout the site, unique meta titles and descriptions for every page.
Add a few more pages and make some adjustments to the admin.

Option 2: Go with the new Wordpress site which I recently started designing/developing. Check it out here: www.vetnetsupplies.com/staging

The site seems to take a while to load so I pointed the DNS to the free CloudFlare plan www.cloudflare.com

I think it helped with the page speed a little but not sure if significant enough to keep using the free plan. Any ideas?

I'm a bit hesitant with Worpress as I'm not sure how secure it is, whether it's a good platform for SEO, and the amount of maintenance/upgrades required to keep the site running for many years to come.

Let me know what you think about which direction you would recommend and why. Any help appreciated!

 

Wordpress it's pretty good, and seems that Google likes it a lot .
It's easier to use and customise.

As a security point of view , a Custom PHP, or Wordpress , are pretty same in the same hole . IF you do gonna have a problem , you either gonna wait for the security hole to be fixed by the Plugin author , or you hire a developer to fix your custom PHP website. ( which obviously involves some money).

From the Management point of view , I think you gonna find Wordpress much easier to use because already has a lot of features that help you to make post, customise a page etc. IF you do go with a custom PHP website, you gonna have to learn , or hire "again" a developer to make some changes . And believe me, there's always gonna be something to change, something new to add, something that you like or you don't like . And if you don't have some good php skills, it's gonna be a pain in the ass , and a hole in your wallet.

Conclusion ..
IF you have strong PHP skills, go with a custom PHP Website.
IF Not, go with Wordpress.

 

WordPress is very secure if you pay attention, and use common sense. Make sure you harden it

The SEO aspects will probably be easier to handle using WordPress.

 

You should also consider the cost to hire a programmer... WordPress is free, plugins are free or just a couple of dollars... and you got a lot of plugins which can do the trick for you