Based in Columbia, Maryland, Tenable helps enterprises identify, manage, and reduce risk across their digital ecosystems. Thousands of security teams rely on Tenable to strengthen their security posture and protect critical assets.

Big gap, big challenge

Tenable has long been a pioneer in exposure management. But as the market evolved, search results started telling a different story.

Bigger players dominated. Louder competitors shaped perception. Domain authority gaps widened.

“We were pioneers of exposure management. Yet the results didn’t show that.”

— Aaron Wilson, Offensive AI Research | Executive Leadership, Tenable.

The initial objective was clear: take ownership of a core group of keywords tied to exposure management.

Tenable had tried building this capability internally. But coordinating subject matter experts, managing relationships with specialist security publications, and creating a consistent stream of authoritative thought leadership proved difficult.

Their knowledge wasn’t translating into rankings, mentions, citations, brand entity recognition, or increased site traffic. And the market was…crowded.

 “We had some big players we were up against in the market who had much higher domain authority, much higher budgets, just more online prowess. Some competitors had built thousands of backlinks for the phrases we wanted to compete on.”

Striking against the crowd of established players

Specialist execution was required. Tenable needed a partner to shape and publish thought leadership that reflected their deep industry knowledge.

Content needed to be contextual and authoritative. It had to demonstrate expertise and strategic storytelling, while naturally pointing readers back to Tenable within useful explanations.

“Bora understands the space. It has partnerships to leverage, which are super important for this work — allowing us to hit deadlines, publish quickly, and build a natural backlink profile across multiple domain authorities.”

 But the defining moment wasn’t purely technical. The real “aha” moment was flexibility.

“Bora’s team was incredibly flexible and willing to engage in back-and-forth negotiations, willing to take on a little more to win the business, and willing to provide deeper levels of insight.”

 That flexibility signalled partnership. And operationally, the experience was clear.

“Bora has their shit together,” Aaron says. “They know what to do. They know when to do it. They understand the timelines. They know who they need to reach out to. They have contingency plans in place.”

“Own-voice evangelization”

There’s an assumption that traditional SEO signals matter less in the AI-search landscape.

“Backlinks are still relevant in the GEO and LLM world. They play a larger role than people want to believe.” 

AI search engines look for authority, context, and sentiment: Who is talking? What are they saying? How are they saying it?

Backlinking remains an important signal for AI platforms. But execution matters. We focused on an approach we call “own-voice evangelization.” That means original opinions written by Bora’s recognized experts and placed across established publications.

AI doesn’t just notice brand mentions — it understands sentiment. Are mentions positive, neutral, or negative? Clear, helpful, and authoritative mentions reinforce trust.

When a brand appears across articles, guides, forums, reviews, and discussions, AI begins recognizing it as a trusted entity — much like people trust names they hear repeatedly.