diff --git a/_includes/footer_custom.html b/_includes/footer_custom.html
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..64e08c290fe6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_includes/footer_custom.html
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{%- if site.footer_content -%}
+  <p class="text-small text-grey-dk-100 mb-0">{{ site.footer_content }}</p>
+{%- endif -%}
diff --git a/_includes/header_custom.html b/_includes/header_custom.html
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e69de29bb2d1
diff --git a/_layouts/default.html b/_layouts/default.html
index a92beb900fb2..f571923c0916 100644
--- a/_layouts/default.html
+++ b/_layouts/default.html
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@
           <div id="search-results" class="search-results"></div>
         </div>
       {% endif %}
+      {% include header_custom.html %}
       {% if site.aux_links %}
         <nav aria-label="Auxiliary" class="aux-nav">
           <ul class="aux-nav-list">
@@ -149,15 +150,17 @@ <h2 class="text-delta">Table of contents</h2>
           </ul>
         {% endif %}
 
-        {% if site.footer_content != nil or site.last_edit_timestamp or site.gh_edit_link %}
+        {% capture footer_custom %}
+          {%- include footer_custom.html -%}
+        {% endcapture %}
+        {% if footer_custom != "" or site.last_edit_timestamp or site.gh_edit_link %}
           <hr>
           <footer>
             {% if site.back_to_top %}
               <p><a href="#top" id="back-to-top">{{ site.back_to_top_text }}</a></p>
             {% endif %}
-            {% if site.footer_content != nil %}
-              <p class="text-small text-grey-dk-000 mb-0">{{ site.footer_content }}</p>
-            {% endif %}
+
+            {{ footer_custom }}
 
             {% if site.last_edit_timestamp or site.gh_edit_link %}
               <div class="d-flex mt-2">
diff --git a/docs/configuration.md b/docs/configuration.md
index 1c6a19de5cc3..d7e5f69c7762 100644
--- a/docs/configuration.md
+++ b/docs/configuration.md
@@ -87,10 +87,13 @@ heading_anchors: true
 ## Footer content
 
 ```yaml
-# Footer content 
+# Footer content
 # appears at the bottom of every page's main content
 footer_content: "Copyright &copy; 2017-2019 Patrick Marsceill. Distributed by an <a href=\"https://github.com/pmarsceill/just-the-docs/tree/master/LICENSE.txt\">MIT license.</a>"
 
+Note: This option is deprecated and will be removed in a future major release. Please use `_includes/footer_custom.html` for more robust
+markup / liquid-based content.
+
 # Footer last edited timestamp
 last_edit_timestamp: true # show or hide edit time - page must have `last_modified_date` defined in the frontmatter
 last_edit_time_format: "%b %e %Y at %I:%M %p" # uses ruby's time format: https://ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.7.0/libdoc/time/rdoc/Time.html
@@ -104,6 +107,8 @@ gh_edit_branch: "master" # the branch that your docs is served from
 gh_edit_view_mode: "tree" # "tree" or "edit" if you want the user to jump into the editor immediately
 ```
 
+_note: `footer_content` is deprecated, but still supported. For a better experience we have moved this into an include called `_includes/footer_custom.html` which will allow for robust markup / liquid-based content._
+
 - the "page last modified" data will only display if a page has a key called `last_modified_date`, formatted in some readable date format
 - `last_edit_time_format` uses Ruby's DateTime formatter; see examples and more information [at this link.](https://apidock.com/ruby/DateTime/strftime)
 - `gh_edit_repository` is the URL of the project's GitHub repository