diff --git a/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/configurator.py b/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/configurator.py
index 41b5124b8..4ce9e6d34 100644
--- a/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/configurator.py
+++ b/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/configurator.py
@@ -69,7 +69,11 @@ class NginxConfigurator(common.Installer):
 
     @classmethod
     def add_parser_arguments(cls, add):
-        add("server-root", default=constants.CLI_DEFAULTS["server_root"],
+        if os.environ.get("CERTBOT_DOCS") == "1":
+            default_server_root = "%s or %s" % (LINUX_SERVER_ROOT, FREEBSD_DARWIN_SERVER_ROOT)
+        else:
+            default_server_root = constants.CLI_DEFAULTS["server_root"]
+        add("server-root", default=default_server_root,
             help="Nginx server root directory.")
         add("ctl", default=constants.CLI_DEFAULTS["ctl"], help="Path to the "
             "'nginx' binary, used for 'configtest' and retrieving nginx "
diff --git a/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/constants.py b/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/constants.py
index dfc451202..d749b6989 100644
--- a/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/constants.py
+++ b/certbot-nginx/certbot_nginx/constants.py
@@ -2,10 +2,13 @@
 import pkg_resources
 import platform
 
+FREEBSD_DARWIN_SERVER_ROOT = "/usr/local/etc/nginx"
+LINUX_SERVER_ROOT = "/etc/nginx"
+
 if platform.system() in ('FreeBSD', 'Darwin'):
-    server_root_tmp = "/usr/local/etc/nginx"
+    server_root_tmp = FREEBSD_DARWIN_SERVER_ROOT
 else:
-    server_root_tmp = "/etc/nginx"
+    server_root_tmp = LINUX_SERVER_ROOT
 
 CLI_DEFAULTS = dict(
     server_root=server_root_tmp,