Experience Cloud: When and How to Publish an Experience Cloud Site

1. Publishing After Latest Content or UI Changes in the Experience Cloud Site

When an admin makes changes to Experience Cloud site content such as:

• Home page banners
• Announcement sections
• Knowledge articles
• Event details
• Navigation links or buttons

Why Publishing is Needed: In Experience Cloud (especially if using Experience Builder), changes are made in the draft (unpublished) version first. Publishing pushes the updated draft to live so end users (customers, partners, employees) can see the new content.

2. Publishing After Deployment of New Features or Components

When the development team deploys new features, Lightning components, flows, or customizations using CI/CD or change sets.
Why Publishing is Needed: Even though the deployment brings new code or components into the org, the Experience Cloud site itself does not automatically reflect these changes. The site must be republished to incorporate the deployed customizations.

3. Publishing After Salesforce Seasonal Releases

When Salesforce performs a seasonal release introducing changes that impact:

• Standard components behavior
• Deprecated features
• Updated UI layouts
• Performance or security updates

Why Publishing is Needed: Some changes may not reflect in your Experience Cloud site until you publish the site again — even if the platform is updated. Salesforce may introduce new features that must be manually added and published to activate. Publishing is often required post-release to ensure compatibility, performance, and access to the latest features.