The Hill-Climbing search always moves towards the goal. Using heuristics it finds which direction will take it closest to the goal. The name “hill-climbing” comes from an analogy: A hiker is lost halfway up/down (depends on if you are an optimist) a mountain at night. His camp is at the top of the mountain. Even though it is dark, the hiker knows that every step he takes up the mountain is a step towards his goal. So a hill-climbing search always goes to the node closest to the goal.

Advantages:
• Reduces number of nodes visited
Disadvantages:
• “False hills” in which extensive backtracking occurs
• All nodes may look equally good