diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index df1add6..9b6327c 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -201,12 +201,14 @@ task :set_root_dir, :dir do |t, args|
     end
     jekyll_config = IO.read('_config.yml')
     jekyll_config.sub!(/^destination:.+$/, "destination: public#{dir}")
-    jekyll_config.sub!(/^subscribe_rss:.+$/, "subscribe_rss: #{dir}/atom.xml")
-    jekyll_config.sub!(/^root:.*$/, "root: #{dir}")
+    jekyll_config.sub!(/^subscribe_rss:\s*\/.+$/, "subscribe_rss: #{dir}/atom.xml")
+    jekyll_config.sub!(/^root:.*$/, "root: /#{dir.sub(/^\//, '')}")
     File.open('_config.yml', 'w') do |f|
       f.write jekyll_config
     end
-    mkdir_p "public#{dir}"
+    rm_rf public_dir
+    mkdir_p "#{public_dir}#{dir}"
+    puts "## Site's root directory is now '/#{dir.sub(/^\//, '')}' ##"
   end
 end
 
diff --git a/_config.yml b/_config.yml
index 5e53a6d..b801db1 100644
--- a/_config.yml
+++ b/_config.yml
@@ -19,9 +19,7 @@ email:
 # ----------------------- #
 
 # If publishing to a subdirectory as in http://site.com/project set 'root: /project'
-# If blank, urls will be mapped to '/'
-root:
-
+root: /
 port: 4000
 permalink: /blog/:year/:month/:day/:title
 source: source