Category pages are like the index pages or subsections on your site. The page will display all the categories of your products in a comprehensive manner. For example, if you are selling jewelry online then the category page will list out and display all the major jewelries that your site would provide. On the other hand if your site is a content site then it will be that page which lists all the seo page lists.

Ordinarily the category pages will have more number of specific keywords than your homepage. Thus when there is acute competition for the keywords relating to your home page there could be less competition for the keywords relating to your category page as they are more specific.

If you are selling articles having a huge number of categories or types then you may have several category pages on your site. This is one basic difference with the home page on a site. The site will have only one homepage but may have more numbers of category pages. This will be good for search engine optimization as there will be potential for greater traffic redirection.

When your site has multiple category pages you may like to focus on some of them more than the others. They will certainly have something in common but some of them will be favored in comparison to others due to specific characteristics. However search optimization in case of the category pages is simpler as most of the incoming links would be from other parts of your own site.