Why choose a .ma domain?

A domain name is the address of your website and your email. For a Moroccan business, .ma tells visitors where the business comes from before they even open the page, in search engine results as much as on a business card. It also gives you a chance to find a short name still free that is already taken as a .com.

Make this choice early, because the name then appears everywhere: on the site, invoices, your Google profile, social media and every email you send. Changing domains once the business is running costs far more than choosing one carefully at the start.

For Luxury.co.ma, the name and the domain were part of the project: the category word itself placed on Morocco’s own domain, so the address says both what the business sells and where it sells it.

Who runs the .ma domain?

The .ma domain is administered by the ANRT, Morocco’s Agence Nationale de Réglementation des Télécommunications, which is its administrator with ICANN. The registration rules are set by its decision no. 02/2024, published in the Bulletin Officiel no. 7280 of 7 March 2024.

The same decision covers the Arabic-script extension .المغرب, run by the same registry. Everything below is based on that text.

Who can register a .ma domain?

The decision opens registration to any natural or legal person. A holder based outside Morocco can also register a .ma, provided they are represented by an administrative contact based in Morocco (article 27).

One point deserves more attention than all the others: the holder must be you, or your business. If a provider registers the domain in its own name, it controls it, and getting your address back can become difficult the day you change providers. It is one of the questions to ask before any quote, as we explain in our guide on how much a website costs in Morocco.

.ma, .co.ma or another extension?

The decision sets out two main zones, .ma and .المغرب, and several descriptive extensions:

  • .co.ma for commercial activities;
  • .net.ma, in particular for internet service providers;
  • .org.ma for associations, foundations and similar organisations;
  • .ac.ma for authorised educational institutions;
  • .press.ma for declared press organisations;
  • .gov.ma for ministries and certain public bodies.

The .gov.ma, .ac.ma and .press.ma extensions are restricted: the applicant must show their right to the name and go through a prior review by the ANRT. For a business, the choice is mainly between .ma, which is shorter, and .co.ma, which signals a commercial activity.

What rules apply to the name itself?

Article 6 of the decision sets the allowed characters:

  • letters a to z, including accented letters, and digits 0 to 9;
  • the hyphen, except in the third and fourth positions, and never at the start or end of the name;
  • no spaces, no single-character names, and no more than 63 characters.

Article 7 also excludes names that harm the territorial integrity of the Kingdom, public order or morality, and a list of reserved terms is published on the registry’s website.

Beyond the rules, a good domain is easy to say over the phone, leaves no doubt about its spelling and matches the name your customers already know. If a hyphen makes the name awkward to say, look for another wording.

How to register a .ma domain, step by step

  1. Check availability with the .ma registry’s WHOIS tool.
  2. Choose a provider from the official list of providers declared with the ANRT. Registration requests must go through one of them.
  3. File the request in the real holder’s name, with up-to-date contact details. Requests are handled on a first come, first served basis: a name that is free today may not be tomorrow.
  4. Keep control of the domain: the provider account, the holder’s email address and the person responsible for follow-up should all stay on your side.

Domain, hosting and website: how are they linked?

They are three different things, often sold together. The domain is the address. Hosting is the server where the site lives. The website is what your customers see.

Keeping them apart in your mind avoids bad surprises: you can change hosting without changing your address, and rebuild your site without losing your email, as long as the domain stays in your name. That is also why a serious quote states who owns the domain, the hosting and the code.

Where to start?

List two or three possible names, check them in the WHOIS, and pick the one that is simplest to say and to spell. When it comes to web development in Morocco, the domain is often the first decision, and it shapes everything after it.

If you are torn between several names or extensions, you can tell us about your project: we will look with you at how each option reads, sounds and holds up over time.