diff --git a/layouts/partials/head.html b/layouts/partials/head.html
index 2d95400f65..63cd432b87 100644
--- a/layouts/partials/head.html
+++ b/layouts/partials/head.html
@@ -21,8 +21,7 @@
     {{ .Site.Title -}}
   {{ end -}}
 </title>
-{{ $desc := .Page.Description | default (.Page.Content | safeHTML | truncate 150) -}}
-<meta name="description" content="{{ $desc }}">
+<meta name="description" content="{{ template "partials/page-description.html" . }}">
 {{ template "_internal/opengraph.html" . -}}
 {{ template "_internal/schema.html" . -}}
 {{ template "_internal/twitter_cards.html" . -}}
diff --git a/layouts/partials/page-description.html b/layouts/partials/page-description.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3529fbe611
--- /dev/null
+++ b/layouts/partials/page-description.html
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+{{ with .Description | plainify -}}
+  {{ . -}}
+{{ else -}}
+  {{ if .IsPage -}}
+    {{ .Summary | plainify | chomp -}}
+  {{ else -}}
+    {{ with .Site.Params.description | plainify -}}
+      {{ . -}}
+    {{ end -}}
+  {{ end -}}
+{{ end -}}