diff --git a/pywb/rewrite/rewrite_content.py b/pywb/rewrite/rewrite_content.py
index 08f8a208..171a7c0c 100644
--- a/pywb/rewrite/rewrite_content.py
+++ b/pywb/rewrite/rewrite_content.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 #import chardet
 import pkgutil
+import webencodings
 import yaml
 import re
 
@@ -164,7 +165,7 @@ class RewriteContent:
 
                 if charset:
                     try:
-                        head_insert_str = head_insert_orig.encode(charset)
+                        head_insert_str = webencodings.encode(head_insert_orig, charset)
                     except:
                         pass
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 3940b632..959d5852 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -76,7 +76,8 @@ setup(
         'jinja2',
         'surt',
         'pyyaml',
-        'watchdog'
+        'watchdog',
+        'webencodings',
        ],
     tests_require=[
         'pytest',