diff --git a/starters/blog/content/blog/hi-folks/index.md b/starters/blog/content/blog/hi-folks/index.md
index 0aa649c928a37..39125abcabb26 100644
--- a/starters/blog/content/blog/hi-folks/index.md
+++ b/starters/blog/content/blog/hi-folks/index.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 ---
 title: New Beginnings
 date: "2015-05-28T22:40:32.169Z"
+description: This is a custom description for SEO and Open Graph purposes, rather than the default generated excerpt. Simply add a description field to the frontmatter.
 ---
 
 Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and
diff --git a/starters/blog/src/pages/index.js b/starters/blog/src/pages/index.js
index aef61a61e33d1..bd3359457e3a4 100644
--- a/starters/blog/src/pages/index.js
+++ b/starters/blog/src/pages/index.js
@@ -33,7 +33,11 @@ class BlogIndex extends React.Component {
                 </Link>
               </h3>
               <small>{node.frontmatter.date}</small>
-              <p dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: node.excerpt }} />
+              <p
+                dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{
+                  __html: node.frontmatter.description || node.excerpt,
+                }}
+              />
             </div>
           )
         })}
@@ -61,6 +65,7 @@ export const pageQuery = graphql`
           frontmatter {
             date(formatString: "MMMM DD, YYYY")
             title
+            description
           }
         }
       }
diff --git a/starters/blog/src/templates/blog-post.js b/starters/blog/src/templates/blog-post.js
index bc05746650512..644054e24956a 100644
--- a/starters/blog/src/templates/blog-post.js
+++ b/starters/blog/src/templates/blog-post.js
@@ -14,7 +14,10 @@ class BlogPostTemplate extends React.Component {
 
     return (
       <Layout location={this.props.location} title={siteTitle}>
-        <SEO title={post.frontmatter.title} description={post.excerpt} />
+        <SEO
+          title={post.frontmatter.title}
+          description={post.frontmatter.description || post.excerpt}
+        />
         <h1>{post.frontmatter.title}</h1>
         <p
           style={{
@@ -80,6 +83,7 @@ export const pageQuery = graphql`
       frontmatter {
         title
         date(formatString: "MMMM DD, YYYY")
+        description
       }
     }
   }