diff --git a/_includes/footer.html b/_includes/footer.html
index 00fc7cb..374a4e9 100644
--- a/_includes/footer.html
+++ b/_includes/footer.html
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@
       </div>
 
       <div class="footer-col  footer-col-3">
-        <p class="text">{{ site.description }}</p>
+        <p class="text">{{ site.description|markdownify }}</p>
       </div>
     </div>
 
diff --git a/_includes/head.html b/_includes/head.html
index 3130921..c9e5bcf 100644
--- a/_includes/head.html
+++ b/_includes/head.html
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
   <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
   <link rel="icon" href="https://gravatar.com/avatar/2bd4ed22d7f59d1a83f5a4253d74f814.jpg">
   <title>{% if page.title %}{{ page.title }}{% else %}{{ site.title }}{% endif %}</title>
-  <meta name="description" content="{% if page.excerpt %}{{ page.excerpt | strip_html | strip_newlines | truncate: 160 }}{% else %}{{ site.description }}{% endif %}">
+  <meta name="description" content="{% if page.excerpt %}{{ page.excerpt | strip_html | strip_newlines | truncate: 160 }}{% else %}{{ site.description | nstrip_html | strip_newlines }}{% endif %}">
 
   <link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ "/css/main.css" | prepend: site.baseurl }}">
   <link rel="canonical" href="{{ page.url | replace:'index.html','' | prepend: site.baseurl | prepend: site.url }}">