How can the table structure be improved to better facilitate the display of categories and images in a gallery using PHP?

The table structure can be improved by adding a new column for category ID to associate each image with a specific category. This way, images can be easily filtered and displayed based on their category. Here is an example of how the table structure can be updated:

```php
CREATE TABLE images (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    category_id INT,
    image_url VARCHAR(255)
);

CREATE TABLE categories (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(50)
);
```

In this updated structure, the `images` table now has a `category_id` column to link each image to a specific category defined in the `categories` table. This allows for easier organization and display of images based on their category.