<p>Understanding of the underlying search processes of metaheuristics is often limited. Metaheuristic search behavior characterization has been proposed as an approach to improve knowledge and understanding of how metaheuristics function. Search behavior, which refers to the manner in which a metaheuristic searches the problem landscape, can be used to understand the impact of control parameters and search operators. To facilitate search behavior characterization, a survey of existing search behavior indicators is done to provide an overview of those that are available. A subset of the search behavior indicators is analyzed against two criteria using a case study of several particle swarm optimisation variants that have incremental structural differences. The first analysis criterion is whether the indicators are capable of distinguishing between different search behavior. It is found that some indicators cannot distinguish between different behavior, while the sensitivity of other indicators varies. The second criterion is whether the indicators are distinct from all other indicators. It is found that there are many indicators which are strongly correlated. However, there are some indicators which are distinct from all other indicators. From these results, it is determined which of the indicators can be recommended for future use to characterize metaheuristics in terms of search behavior, and suggested pairings of indicators are given.</p>