Metrics and feedback. Here's a simple idea: create a separate google voice number for the business and put that on the website, then forward it to the existing biz line. That way you can track which business comes from the web site. Similarly, try implementing web-only specials and promotions (even if only superficially different) so you can track the effectiveness of the web site.
Why are you so sure it will? Can you give me use cases or examples where a restaurant owner stands to make money from his site anywhere other than booking reservations possibly?
1) If you have live acts performing at your establishment Friday-Sunday, the website can raise awareness.
2) Specialty products / menu items.
3) Paraphernalia / SWAG from the restaurant.
4) Take out -- order online, pick up in store.
5) If you sell things like coffee beans, web presence increases the number of eyeballs on your product.
At the end of the day, restaurants are about putting bodies in chairs and serving them food. Thus, the focus of a good website should be increasing traffic into the restaurant.
One way I could see functionality between restaurant and website would be linking time-to-wait dynamically with the website. So if I go to a restaurant's website, I could see # of people waiting and average time to wait for the evening. This does go back to putting bodies in seats, but it would better link web presence with what actually happens in the restaurant.
Really? I'd be curious to see how someone implements this. From my admittedly limited knowledge of the space, I see three different ways to tackling this. First, build out your own reservation system that uses your custom software to link the reservation system to the website and provide a vertical stack. Second, build plugins/hooks for existing electronic reservation/seating systems currently in use. Or third, work with the OpenTable's API.
OpenTable doesn't really have an official API. Urbanspoon has been touting Rez as an alternative but same story there. Will definitely let you know when we're ready for primetime.
Websites are marketing. The most lucrative demographic for restaurants tends to be the 20s through 40s crowd, which is also the most likely to use the web to find and make a decision on a restaurant. Lowering the friction for finding out key information such as hours, location, menu, prices, etc. also lowers the friction for deciding to visit a restaurant, and that's dollars in the owners pocket.
When I take my company out (~20-40 people depending on who's around), I need to first know whether the restaurant sells any food I can eat. If you make it hard for me to know that, I'm going to assume you don't and suggest we go either somewhere I know or some place that makes it easier for me to figure out.
If nothing else, I think reputation is a key part of that. I know I'll look at a non-chain's restaurant's website first and if it's terrible, I seriously might not go. Especially if it's not mobile-compatible.
I'm currently building a website for a cafe who roast their own beans etc. They sell alongside their in-premises coffee bags of the ground beans made to customer specifications. The next stage of development will be adding a store for people to order these (and other) products online.
I wonder if similar opportunities exist in the restaurant space.