Wordpress Template or HTML Template?

Depending on the template you get it could be pre built with HTML5 seo semantic markup or it may not. This applies to both just html template or a wordpress theme. As far as seo advantages I dont think there will be many either way as anything that can be done in a wordpress theme can be done with an html template.

I think where the advantages will start to show will be for wordpress when you start to consider how easy everything gets down the line. You can of course install seo plugins that will do a lot of the work behind the scenes for you which you would have to do on your own if you went for straight up html templates. That is the main advantage I can see of using wordpress over html; just the ease of doing everything as there are so many plugins to do whatever you want on the market.

I must admit when I started I came in with a lot of web dev knowledge and I had a bit of a snob attitude towards wordpress. Why would I use wordpress when I can code it all myself? I have since realised that using wordpress in conjunction with development knowledge is the way forward. Wordpress will do all the trivial tasks for me and if there is anything I want to change that becomes a hassle with wordpress I just go into the source and edit it manually myself.

Best of both worlds

It's one thing thing to make webpages with something like Dreamweaver, for the most part that is pretty simple.

It's another thing when you want your website to do more than just show static content. When you want/need a contact form, or a slider, security, spam protection or something as necessary as a comments option, then you need to start programming, like in PHP, and that is when you could spend ALOT of time. With wordpress, most all of that is already done for you, just a matter of installing a plugin.

Wordpress is not the solution for every one or every business, but for most people just looking to earn online, it's a fantastic tool. Less work and learning curve, more time to do the more important tasks, like marketing, promotion, ect.

Course just my opinion