Anchor text is the visible part of a link (hyperlink) that appears as clickable text and directs a user from one web page to another. It is usually shown in blue and underlined. From an SEO perspective, when used correctly, anchor text gives search engines information about the content of the link and can help the target page rank for relevant keywords. Anchor text should be natural and appropriate to the context, and should be used in different types such as exact keyword match, partial match, branded, bare URL and generic terms. Using overly optimized or repetitive anchor text can be penalized by search engines, so it's important to adopt a balanced and diverse anchor text strategy.