In SharePoint Online, when you're editing a page, the "Save and close" and "Publish" options serve different purposes in the content lifecycle:
Save and Close
- What it does: Saves your changes as a draft and exits the editing mode.
- Visibility: The changes are only visible to you (and possibly other editors with appropriate permissions).
- Use case: Ideal when you're still working on the content and don't want others to see the updates yet.
Publish
- What it does: Makes your changes live on the site.
- Visibility: The updated page is now visible to everyone with view access to the site.
- Use case: Use this when your edits are complete and ready for public or team-wide viewing.