The footer element defines footer content for a page or a section of a page.
It typically contains copyright, information about the author, sitemap, links to related documents, of contact information (inside an address tag).
It is usually used for website-wide footer with copyright and navigation or a section-specific footer with references or author information.
Example of a website-wide footer:

Example of a section-specific footer

It is possible to use <footer> multiple times in one document.
The <footer> element, while not mandatory, provides a clearer structure for the document and is beneficial for SEO.