How can I track a template?

I am trying to create a standard module to be included into many projects. Specifically, the build system skeleton, but I have other uses for the same mechanism. The idea is to have a repository with the skeleton itself, and have other projects include it somehow and keep up-to-date by pulling from the template repository.

The straightforward approach of using 'git pull' does not work very well. At each merge, all the things changed show up. For example, I would change the project name in the configure template. This change creates a merge conflict on every pull even if that particular line did not change in the template. Somehow it just doesn't seem to establish a base for the merges. Another problem is that the tags get pulled and become tags on the project, which is undesirable.

What sort of a solution would you recommend for this, if any?