I suggest wordpress for newbies, it is easy and could be any kind of functional website with hundreds of thousands plugs.
Even consider seo, wordpress still the best choice.
But wordpress one big insufficiency, that is php running efficiency, espacially when you want to add more functions to your site with more plugs(most wp plugs were developed by third party), the site more and more big, the speed would more and more slow.
So, if you are going to make a long term running with big plan, I suggest to customize a php platform. Otherwise, wordpress is best choice.