Digital marketing for medical and dental practices in Morocco: what you're allowed to do

In Morocco, a doctor or a dental surgeon is not allowed to advertise. The Code of Ethics of the medical profession prohibits announcements of an advertising nature and patient touting; the dentists' code prohibits “any direct or indirect means of self-promotion or advertising.” What remains allowed is public information: name, specialty, address, hours, a sober website and educational health content. And that scope is enough to fill a schedule, because most practices don't even make use of it.

Is a medical practice allowed to advertise in Morocco?

No. Two texts govern the matter, and neither leaves any room for commercial promotion:

• Doctors — Decree No. 2-21-225 of June 17, 2021, published in Official Bulletin No. 7066 of February 17, 2022. Its Chapter III is titled “Advertising and communication with the public” and covers Articles 21 to 29.
• Dentists — Decree No. 2-96-989 of January 5, 1999, Official Bulletin No. 4662 of February 4, 1999, still in force.

Both codes start from the same principle: the profession must under no circumstances be practiced as a business (Article 29 for doctors, Article 11 for dentists). Everything follows from there. Article 21 forbids doctors from boasting about their expertise and classifies as “patient touting” any direct solicitation through offers or promises of services. Article 26 specifies that a professional website or digital space must not be “a means of advertising or of attracting patients.”

What is prohibited, and what is allowed

The line is clearer than people think. Here are practices you see every day on Moroccan social media, and their actual status:

A useful clarification: practicing within a clinic or a company doesn't reopen the door. Article 23 forbids doctors from allowing their title or reputation to be used for advertising purposes, including by an organization they work with.

What you are allowed to do — and it's enough

The permitted scope covers exactly what a patient is looking for: who you are, where you are, when you see patients, how to book an appointment. Four workstreams, none of them advertising:

• An accurate Google Business Profile — it's today's directory. The dentists' code explicitly allows being listed in a directory with last name, first name, address, phone number and consultation days and hours (Article 12). Fill in these fields, pin the address correctly, and add nothing promotional.
• A phone that gets answered — the number one reason a practice loses patients isn't competition, it's an unanswered call at 11 a.m. No ethics rule stands in the way, and no budget is needed.
• Online appointment booking — it's a service to the patient, not solicitation. It reduces missed appointments and frees up the front desk.
• Educational health guides — Article 28 allows educational health information, provided it is clear, objective, relevant and verifiable. It's the only content lever that is fully open to you.

With paid advertising off the table, visibility is won in search: a complete profile and pages that answer your patients' real questions. That's the territory of organic SEO, and our guide to the Google Business Profile in Morocco details the steps to follow.

Your website: the three rules almost nobody follows

The 2021 code is very precise about professional websites. Three obligations almost always slip through the cracks:

1. Declare the website to your regional council — Article 26 requires you to inform the regional council when you create a website or any other professional digital space, social media included. It's free, and it's what protects you.
2. The domain name must carry your name — Article 27 requires the site's name to include the practitioner's last and first name, or the name of the legally constituted association of doctors. Generic specialty names and pseudonyms are prohibited. In other words: dr-firstname-lastname.ma yes, implants-casablanca.ma no.
3. Stick to the Article 28 list — it's a closed list, not a list of examples.

The website may display: your last and first name, preceded where applicable by the title of doctor; mention of general medicine or of the specialty under which you are registered on the roll of the Order; your university titles and degrees, along with the institutions that awarded them; the names of your associates and assistants; a short description of your training and career; an ID photo; the field of medical activities practiced, insofar as it is justified by your degrees and titles; your scientific work and publications; educational health information.

Two prohibitions complete the picture: visitors must not be required to disclose their identity to view the site, and the site must not link to commercial websites. Article 26 also refers to the laws on personal data protection — in Morocco, Law 09-08 and the National Commission for the Control of Personal Data Protection (CNDP): an appointment form asks only for what is strictly necessary. For implementation, see our website design service.

Google reviews: don't solicit them, and reply with care

This is where the medical sector differs most from every other. For a shop, asking for reviews is the first recommendation; for a practice, it's soliciting patients — exactly what Article 21 targets under the term touting. No QR code on the invoice, no SMS reminders.

Reviews will come anyway, and you can't delete them. The trap is in the reply: publicly answering “thank you for trusting us with your implant” confirms that this person is your patient and reveals their treatment. That's a breach of medical confidentiality, far more serious than the review itself. Reply with neutral wording — never naming anyone, never medical:

“Hello, medical confidentiality prevents us from commenting on an individual situation online. You can reach us at the practice on 05 XX XX XX XX to discuss it directly.”

Our article on Google reviews in Morocco still applies to businesses: its advice on actively collecting reviews does not apply to health professions.

Where to start: the steps to follow

In order, from the highest payoff to the longest effort:

1. Claim your Google profile and correct the address, category, hours and phone number. Free, one hour.
2. Sort out the phone: who answers, at what hours, what to do with missed calls. Organization, not budget.
3. Declare to your regional council your website and your professional digital spaces. One letter.
4. Bring the website into compliance — domain name, Article 28 content, minimal form. Generally expect $599–1,990 / €599–1,990 excluding tax, depending on scope.
5. Publish six to ten educational guides on the questions your patients really ask during consultations.

What ANIMA does — and refuses to do — for a practice

We refuse paid campaigns designed to attract patients, before/after content, testimonials and promises of results. It's not commercial caution: before the Order, you are the one who answers, not your agency.

What we do: the Google profile, a website compliant with Article 28, appointment booking, educational health content and local SEO. Everything is produced in-house, with a single point of contact.

Our house rule is that the ad budget is paid directly by the client to the platform, with no agency commission. Here, it doesn't even come into play: there is no media budget to commit. What remains, and matters more: the domain name, hosting, Google profile and accounts are opened in your name and belong to you. If you leave the agency, you take them with you.