In present manuscript, effective doping of Er3+ in ZnO nanoparticles via wet chemical method is demonstrated. Structural and optical characterization were carried out by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), UV‐Vis spectroscopy and Photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). From XRD results, it has been found that Er atoms take the substitutional sites in ZnO without any distortion in the host lattice (ZnO). The average crystallite size was found to be in the range 20–34 nm from XRD, which was also confirmed by SEM. There is a blue shift in the absorption peak with increasing concentration of Er in ZnO. PL of Er‐doped ZnO shows an enhancement in visible emission. PL intensity of Er‐doped ZnO first increases with doping concentration up to 1.5 wt.% and then decreases which are attributed to concentration quenching. These results show that an effective doping of Er in ZnO is useful to control the visible emission for optoelectronic applications.