Medical practice website in Morocco: what doctors may publish, and what patients look for

Whether you are opening a private practice, managing a dental surgery or investing in a clinic in Morocco, the website question comes with a second one: what is a doctor actually allowed to publish online here? Advertising rules for medicine are strict in most countries, and Morocco is no exception. The good news is that the rules are written down, and they are short.

Since 2021, the Moroccan medical code of ethics has contained three articles specifically about doctors’ websites. Law 09-08 on personal data adds rules for the health information an appointment form collects. Together, they are enough to build a site that is useful for patients and safe for you.

This guide goes through those rules article by article, then covers what patients actually type into Google, appointment requests by form and WhatsApp, the Google Business Profile, page structure, copywriting, cost and a pre-launch checklist. The logic is close to that for lawyers, covered in our guide to law firm websites in Morocco, but the texts are different. It is written by Bzaf Studio, a web agency in Marrakech since 2021. We are neither lawyers nor doctors: we quote the official texts we have read, and on anything open to interpretation, the opinion that counts is that of your regional council of the Order. Quotations from the code are our translation of the official French text.

Can a doctor have a website in Morocco?

Yes, and the text says so explicitly. The code of ethics of the medical profession was made applicable by Decree No. 2-21-225 of 17 June 2021. It replaced a residential order of 8 June 1953, which predated the internet. It was drawn up by the National Order of Physicians (Ordre national des médecins), as Law 08-12 on the Order provides, and it applies to every doctor on the Order’s register, in private and public practice alike (Article 3). The text is available on the Ministry of Justice’s legal portal.

Its Chapter III is titled “Advertising and communication with the public”. It does not ban websites. It allows an information site, not an advertising tool, and everything else follows from that distinction.

One sentence shows the difference. Information: “Dr First Last, paediatrician, consultations in Agdal, Rabat, Monday to Saturday.” Advertising: “The best paediatrician in Rabat, first consultation free, book now.” The first belongs on a doctor’s website. The second exposes the doctor to disciplinary action: Article 4 makes any breach of the code subject to sanctions.

The underlying principle is in Article 29: medicine must never, in any way, be practised as a business. A practice website is not a shop window. Think of it as the brass plate, the directory listing and a well-kept waiting room, put online.

What articles 26, 27 and 28 of the code of ethics say

Article 26: inform the regional council, do not attract patients

A doctor “must inform the relevant regional council when creating a website or another digital space on social networks for professional purposes”. The word is inform, not ask for permission. But informing is mandatory, and it covers a website as much as a professional social-media page.

The same article sets four content rules:

• No advertising, no attracting patients. Sites and digital spaces “must not be a means of advertising or of attracting patients”.
• You are responsible for everything on it. Medical information and advice must comply with the law, “in particular the law on the protection of personal data”, and with the code itself.
• Visitors do not have to identify themselves. In practice: no members-only content, no mandatory form before a page can be read.
• No commercial links. No links to sites offering advantages to certain colleagues, or to commercial sites: product manufacturers, equipment shops, online pharmacies, supplement brands.

Article 27: the name of the site

The name of a doctor’s professional website must include the practitioner’s first and last name, or the name of the legally constituted association of doctors. Using a generic specialty name or a pseudonym as the site’s name is prohibited. Non-compliant sites must be brought into line or deleted within a deadline set by the National Council.

The article talks about the site’s name, not explicitly the domain name. But the address is the first thing a patient reads, and a domain such as “dentist-casablanca.ma” or “best-cardiologist.ma” looks exactly like what the article is trying to prevent. Our cautious rule: a domain built on your name, such as dr-firstname-lastname.ma, or the name of your professional partnership. Our page on .ma domain names explains how the domain is registered in your name.

Article 28: what the site may contain

This is the official list of information authorised on a doctor’s professional website:

• first and last name, preceded by the title of doctor or another title authorised by law;
• general practice, or the specialty under which the doctor is registered with the Order;
• university degrees and titles, with the institutions that awarded them;
• names of associate doctors and assistants, where relevant;
• a short description of training and career;
• an ID-style photo of the doctor;
• the field of medical activity, including a diagnostic or therapeutic specialisation, as far as it is backed by degrees and titles;
• a list of scientific work and publications;
• educational health information that is clear, objective, relevant and verifiable.

The list says a lot by omission. It allows real content: your background, your activities, health articles. It provides for no patient reviews, no results gallery, no price list, no offers. And it does not literally mention the practical details every patient looks for: address, phone, hours, directions. More on that below.

What is banned, and what to clear first

Reading Chapter III alongside the rest of the code and Law 131-13 on the practice of medicine, the elements of a practice website fall into three groups: what is provided for, what is excluded, and practical information worth flagging to the regional council.

Website element	Status	Legal basis
Name, title, registered specialty, degrees, career, ID photo	Provided for	Code, Art. 28
Medical activities backed by your degrees	Provided for	Code, Art. 28
Educational health articles, with sources	Provided for, if objective and verifiable	Code, Arts. 21 and 28
“Promo”, “-20%”, fees cut to win patients	Excluded	Code, Art. 57
Superlatives, “the best”, “No. 1”, boasting	Excluded	Code, Arts. 21 and 26
Unrecognised title or specialty, pseudonym	Excluded	Code, Arts. 24 and 27
Links to commercial sites, selling products	Excluded	Code, Arts. 26 and 30
Members-only content	Excluded	Code, Art. 26
Address, map, hours, phone, consultation languages	Practical information, flag to the regional council	Not listed in Art. 28; Art. 25 allows announcing a change of address or hours
Fees, health-insurance agreements	Clear before publishing	Must be displayed at the practice (Law 131-13, Art. 46); not listed in Art. 28
Patient reviews and testimonials, before/after photos	Leave out, in our reading	Attracting patients (Art. 26) and medical confidentiality (Art. 11)

Practical information: address, hours, phone

A practice website without an address or hours is useless to patients. These details are not in the Article 28 list, but they are service information, not sales arguments. Article 25 of the code in fact allows a doctor to announce, including through “electronic means of communication”, a new practice address, an absence of at least fifteen days, a return to work or a change of hours. Our approach: publish them plainly, and list them in the letter informing the regional council about the site. If the council objects, you will know before launch.

Fees and insurance agreements

Law 131-13 requires doctors to display their fees, “visibly and legibly”, in the reception area or waiting room, along with whether or not they have joined the national agreements under compulsory health insurance (AMO) (Article 46). Failing to do so carries a fine of 5,000 to 10,000 DH (Article 112). That obligation applies to the practice, not the website.

Should you repeat it online? Patients clearly want it: “dentiste casablanca prix” and “dentiste conventionné cnops” both appear in Google’s suggestions. But Article 28 does not list fees, and Article 57 forbids soliciting patients by advertising a fee reduction. Our advice: publish neither fees nor insurance agreements without the regional council’s agreement, and never as a teaser price. Meanwhile, the practical page can explain which documents patients need for reimbursement, without figures.

Patient reviews and before/after photos

The code does not mention testimonials. But a review shown on the site serves to attract patients, which Article 26 rules out, and it reveals that a person was treated by you, which falls under the professional secrecy of Article 11, covering everything the doctor may “see, learn, observe”. Before/after photos raise the same issue, more visibly. Our advice: leave them out, even anonymised, even with written consent, unless the Order has approved them.

Dental practices: a different order, a different code

A common misunderstanding: the 2021 code applies to doctors on the register of the National Order of Physicians (Article 3). Dentists in private practice have their own body, the National Order of Dentists (Ordre national des médecins dentistes), governed by Law No. 07-05 enacted by Dahir No. 1-07-41 of 17 April 2007, and their own code of professional duties, made applicable by Decree No. 2-96-989 of 1999 (Article 79 of Law 07-05). Any breach of those duties is a disciplinary offence, with sanctions ranging from a warning to removal from the register (Articles 54 and 55).

We could not consult a complete official version of that code’s advertising articles online, so we will not quote them, and we advise against relying on a copy found on a forum. The safe approach:

• Write to the council of the dental Order before launch, enclosing the site structure and copy. Ask whether there is a notification procedure like the one for doctors.
• Apply at least the restraint required of doctors: site in your name, factual information, no promotions, no before/after, no patient reviews.
• Law 09-08 applies in exactly the same way. It does not depend on the professional order: your patients’ health data is sensitive data, whether you are a doctor, a dentist or a clinic.

Dental searches often combine a procedure and a price: Google suggests “implant dentaire maroc prix”, “soins dentaires maroc remboursement”, “clinique dentaire maroc tarifs”. A dental practice site can answer with information: what the procedure involves, how many sessions, what follow-up, which documents for reimbursement. The figure comes at the practice, after an examination.

Clinics and medical centres: what changes

Under Law 131-13, a clinic is a private health facility providing diagnosis and care with hospitalisation (Article 59); haemodialysis, radiotherapy and chemotherapy centres, among others, are treated as clinics. A clinic’s website belongs to a facility, not a doctor. If you invest in or run one, three rules still tie the site to the medical framework.

First, the doctors who practise there remain bound by their code. Article 23 forbids a doctor from tolerating the use of their name, standing or reputation “for advertising purposes, in particular by any organisation they work with”. A “Our doctors” page describing someone as “Morocco’s most renowned specialist” exposes that doctor, not just the clinic.

Second, the law already requires the clinic to display, at its entrance and in reception areas, the list of doctors who practise there with their specialties, its prices and its AMO agreement status (Article 75). The website can reflect that transparency soberly: one profile per doctor built on the Article 28 elements, one page per department.

Third, if the clinic offers teleconsultations, Law 131-13 regulates them (Articles 99 to 102): no telemedicine act without the patient’s express, free and informed consent, given in writing, including electronically, and every act recorded in the patient’s file. The website can describe the service; it does not replace collecting consent.

A clinic needs more pages than a practice: one per specialty or department, one profile per doctor, admissions, visitors. Our showcase website includes up to thirty pages; additional pages are priced in advance.

What patients search for before they call

Google’s autocomplete suggestions in Morocco, which we checked on 14 November 2026, give no volumes, but they show intent very clearly.

What the patient types	What they want to know	What the site must show
“dentiste marrakech gueliz”, “pédiatre rabat agdal”, “gynécologue casablanca maarif”	A practitioner in their neighbourhood	The neighbourhood on the contact page, the exact address, landmarks
“طبيب أسنان مراكش المسيرة” (dentist Marrakech Massira)	The same, in Arabic	An Arabic version with the address and neighbourhoods in Arabic
“dentiste ouvert dimanche”, “dentiste marrakech ouvert actuellement”	Whether the practice is open, right now	Full, up-to-date hours on the site and the Google profile
“dentiste conventionné cnops”, “soins dentaires maroc remboursement”	Whether they will be reimbursed	Documents to bring; insurance status only once cleared
“implant dentaire maroc prix”	What it will cost	How the procedure and first visit work, no teaser price
“english speaking doctor marrakech”, “طبيب اسنان بالانجليزي”	Whether they will be understood	Consultation languages, on the home and practical pages
“cabinet dentaire autour de moi”, “médecin de garde marrakech”	The nearest one, now	An accurate Google profile, a tap-to-call number, directions

Three lessons. First, search is hyperlocal. Patients do not look for “dentist Marrakech”; they look for “dentist Massira” or “dentist Daoudiate”. The neighbourhood name belongs on your contact page, your Google profile and your directions: “building opposite the pharmacy, second floor, lift”.

Second, opening hours are medical information. A patient in pain on a Saturday wants to know whether you are open, not read your CV. Full hours, closing days, holidays announced in advance (which Article 25 allows), and a clear line on what to do outside opening hours.

Third, language matters. Some patients search in Arabic, others in French, and expats and visitors search in English. A bilingual site is not a luxury for a practice; it is included in our plan, and our page on multilingual websites explains how each language gets its own address for Google.

Add what patients want to know before they travel: how a first consultation works, how long it takes, what to bring (ID, health-insurance card, recent prescriptions and test results), wheelchair access. Every answer saves a call to the front desk.

Online appointments: forms, WhatsApp and law 09-08

Law 09-08 lists data “relating to health” among “sensitive data” (Article 1). Processing it falls under a stricter regime: prior authorisation as a rule (Articles 12 and 21), with a declaration regime under Article 22 where the sole purpose is diagnosis, care or the management of health services, carried out by a practitioner bound by professional secrecy. In November 2025, the CNDP adopted a standard authorisation model for patient management and follow-up (Deliberation No. D-941-2025), whose first listed purpose is “booking medical appointments”.

The filing is made in the name of the practice or clinic, on the CNDP’s platform, which will tell you which procedure applies to you. The website’s job is to be consistent with it.

The appointment form

Three principles of the law shape it. Data must be “adequate, relevant and not excessive” for the purpose (Article 3). At the point of collection, patients must be told who the controller is, the purpose, the recipients, whether answers are mandatory, their rights, and the details of the CNDP receipt or authorisation (Article 5). And the controller must protect the data against unauthorised access, especially when it travels over a network (Articles 23 and 24).

Field	Our choice	Why
First and last name	Yes	Needed for the appointment
Phone	Yes	The front desk calls back to confirm
Type of visit (first visit, follow-up, check-up)	Yes, as a fixed list	Organises the diary without describing a condition
Preferred slot	Yes	Needed for the appointment
Email	Optional	Only if the practice confirms by email
“Describe your symptoms”, free text	No	Health data not needed to book
Attachments (test results, X-rays, prescriptions)	No	Health data travelling by email
National ID or insurance number	No	Checked at the practice; ID numbers also require prior authorisation (Art. 12)

Under the submit button, a short notice: who receives the request, why, how long it is kept, how to exercise one’s rights, and your CNDP reference. Details go in the privacy policy. And the form stays optional: the phone number sits next to it, since visitors must never be forced to identify themselves to reach or read you (code, Article 26).

WhatsApp

Many patients in Morocco would rather send a WhatsApp message than fill in a form. A WhatsApp button belongs on a practice website, provided it is used for booking only. Three settings:

• The number is the practice’s, handled by the front desk, not the doctor’s personal number. The code requires doctors to make sure their assistants are fully aware of their professional obligations, “in particular regarding professional secrecy” (Article 74).
• The pre-filled message is neutral: “Hello, I would like an appointment.” Nothing about the reason.
• One line on the contact page: WhatsApp is for booking; please do not send results, photos or descriptions of symptoms. Results are handed over at the practice.

What stays off a practice website

No social-media advertising pixel or retargeting tool: they tell a third party that someone viewed the “pregnancy follow-up” or “fertility treatment” page. That is health data leaving the practice, and it is an advertising tool, two reasons to do without. Simple audience measurement is enough to see which pages are read.

No transfer of data outside Morocco without thinking it through: Law 09-08 regulates transfers abroad (Articles 43 and 44), and Deliberation D-941-2025 states that patient follow-up data may not be transferred abroad without prior CNDP authorisation. If you use an online booking platform, ask where the data is stored, and require the processing contract provided for in Article 23.

No promotional messages: direct marketing by email or automated message is prohibited without the person’s prior consent (Article 10), and for a doctor it would be advertising anyway. An appointment reminder is not marketing; a “back-to-school teeth-whitening offer” is.

The Google Business Profile of a medical practice

For “cabinet dentaire autour de moi” or “médecin de garde marrakech”, the Google profile often appears first, before any website. It must be accurate, and it has its own rules, published in Google’s guidelines for representing your business.

• Doctors and dentists are “individual practitioners” for Google. In a group practice or clinic, each practitioner who sees patients can have their own profile, and the practice its own. A practitioner’s profile carries their name only, not the practice’s.
• The profile name is your real name, as patients know it. Not “Dr Name, best dentist Marrakech implants”: Google prohibits extra information and taglines in the name, and can suspend the profile.
• Hours are complete, including special hours for public holidays and leave. That is what people typing “open now” read.
• The profile links to the site, and the site to the profile: same name, same address, same phone.

Reviews call for restraint. Google’s policies prohibit paid or incentivised reviews, discouraging negative reviews and selectively soliciting positive ones; they also prohibit posting someone’s medical information without permission. The code rules out attracting patients and protects secrecy. In practice: do not solicit reviews, and reply to each one with a courteous, neutral line, without ever confirming that the person was your patient or discussing their case.

Because Article 26 also covers “other digital spaces” used professionally, we recommend mentioning the Google profile in the letter to the regional council, together with the site. The profile is included in our plan: we create or take over the profile and link it to the site. The full method is in our local SEO guide for Morocco.

The structure of a practice website, page by page

A practice website does not need to be long. It needs every page to answer one clear question. Here is the structure we deliver to a general or specialist practice.

1. Home

One sentence saying who, what and where: “Dr First Last, paediatrician in Rabat, Agdal. Consultations Monday to Saturday, in Arabic, French and English.” Then the hours, a tap-to-call number and the appointment button. No slideshow, no slogan.

2. The doctor

The Article 28 elements, nothing more and nothing less: title, registered specialty, degrees and institutions, a short career summary, an ID photo, publications. In a group practice, one section per doctor with the same elements.

3. Activities, one page per field

Each field backed by your degrees gets its own page: what it covers, how care is organised, how many visits, what follow-up. For a paediatrician: infant check-ups, vaccinations, adolescent consultations. For a dentist: restorative care, prosthetics, orthodontics if backed by a qualification. These pages answer precise searches and are the core of a practice site’s SEO.

4. Practical information

Full address with neighbourhood, landmarks, floor, lift, parking, map, detailed hours, closing days, consultation languages, documents to bring, what to do outside opening hours.

5. Appointments

Phone, WhatsApp button, a minimal form with its notice, and a line saying when the front desk calls back.

6. Health advice

General information articles, which Article 28 explicitly allows: preparing for a consultation, the vaccination schedule, care after a tooth extraction. Clear, objective, verifiable, no promises. This is what makes a site climb in Google over time.

7 and 8. Legal notice and privacy policy

Identity of the doctor or company, address, registration with the Order and specialty, host, publisher. Then the privacy policy: data collected by the form, purpose, recipients, retention period, rights of access, rectification and objection, CNDP reference. These pages are included in our plan and written for Moroccan law.

Eight pages for a solo practice, around fifteen for a group practice, more for a clinic. In every case, the same rule: every page informs, none sells.

Writing the pages: inform, never promise

Most ethical problems on a practice site come from the copy, not the design. A copywriter used to retail will write “the best”, “pain-free”, “guaranteed results”. On a doctor’s site those words do not belong: Article 26 rules out advertising, and Article 21, which governs doctors’ communication in the media and on social networks, asks them not to boast of their expertise, not to raise false hopes, and not to present an insufficiently proven procedure as effective and safe.

Avoid	Write instead
“The best dentist in Casablanca”	“Dental surgeon in Casablanca, Maarif”
“Pain-free implants, guaranteed results”	“Dental implants: the steps, treatment time, follow-up”
“First consultation free”	“What happens at a first consultation”
“Thousands of happy patients”	Nothing: no figures, no reviews
“Smile design specialist” without a matching title	The specialty registered with the Order, and activities backed by your degrees
“Revolutionary technique”	The technique’s name, indications, limits and a source

For health articles, three habits. General information, never a remote diagnosis. A source for every figure, preferably official. And your own review before publication: Article 26 makes you responsible for all medical information you put online. Our plan includes one blog article written each month; on a medical site, read it before each publication, since you answer for it.

The Arabic version is written in Arabic, not translated word for word from French: everyday medical vocabulary, the order of ideas and courtesy formulas differ. Names of specialties and procedures should be the ones your patients use, and that you approve.

How much does a medical practice website cost in Morocco?

A practice website is priced like any other business website. On the Moroccan market, expect from around 5,000 DH to build with a freelancer, and 15,000 to 45,000 DH with a traditional agency, with hosting, domain and maintenance on top. The full three-year breakdown is in our article on website costs in Morocco.

At Bzaf Studio, a practice or clinic website costs 399 DH a month including VAT, on a 12-month commitment, then month to month; or 4,550 DH a year including VAT, 238 DH less than twelve monthly payments. There is no set-up fee: the first month is paid when you order, by bank transfer, with our bank details sent in the order confirmation within 24 hours. The plan includes:

• up to 30 pages, with a design drawn for your practice, built mobile-first;
• a second language: French with Arabic, or French with English;
• the appointment form and WhatsApp button, set up as described above;
• SEO on every page, and the Google Business Profile created or taken over and linked to the site;
• legal pages and a privacy policy adapted to Law 09-08;
• a .ma or .com domain in your name, hosting, SSL certificate and backups, detailed on our hosting and maintenance page;
• maintenance, small changes, and one blog article a month.

The site goes live 5 working days after your complete brief, and nothing is published until you have approved every page. Once paid in full, the site, its content and its domain name are yours. Full details are on the offer page.

What we need from you: the exact wording of your specialty and degrees, a professional ID photo, address and hours, consultation languages, your CNDP reference, and a careful review of every text, since your name signs them. The letter to the regional council is yours to send; enclose the list of pages and the approved copy.

What the plan does not do, and we would rather say so: an online medical diary linked to your practice software, a patient portal with test results, or built-in teleconsultation. Those are separate medical tools with their own obligations; the site can link to them, it does not replace them.

The pre-launch checklist

Go through every page. If an answer is no, fix it before going live.

• The regional council of the Order has been informed of the site and the Google profile (Article 26).
• The site name and domain use your name, not a generic specialty (Article 27).
• The title and specialty shown match your registration with the Order (Articles 24 and 28).
• No superlatives, no promised results, no discounts or offers (Articles 21 and 57).
• No patient reviews, no before/after photos, no recognisable cases (Articles 11 and 26).
• No links to commercial sites; no products for sale (Articles 26 and 30).
• All content can be read without signing up; the phone number sits next to the form (Article 26).
• The form asks for no symptoms, attachments or ID number, and shows the notice with the CNDP reference (Law 09-08, Articles 3 and 5).
• The site runs on https on every page, with no advertising pixel (Law 09-08, Articles 23 and 24).
• Hours, address with neighbourhood and consultation languages match on the site and the Google profile.
• Fees and insurance agreements are published only with the regional council’s agreement.
• For a dental practice: the council of the dental Order has been consulted.

A practice website does not create patients out of thin air, and that is not its job. It makes you findable in your neighbourhood, answers practical questions before the call, and shows a serious practitioner to someone who is hesitating. We work from Marrakech for practices all over Morocco, from Casablanca to Rabat, and we reply within 24 hours on WhatsApp. To get started, the order page takes five minutes.