category_link uses /category/

The following code will return a permalink for the category, but it includes /category/ as a base path. This is unnecessary for my permalink structure. How do I remove it?

<?php
    // Get the ID of a given category
    $category_name = "About";
    $category_id = get_cat_ID($category_name);

    // Get the URL of this category
    $category_link = get_category_link( $category_id );
?>