Sol-gol method was employed to synthesize Mg doped ZnO films on Si substrates. The annealing temperature-dependent structure and optical property of the produced samples were studied. An interesting result observed is that increasing Mg concentration in the studied samples induces the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of their near-band-edge (NBE) emission decrease and the defect related emission of the corresponding sample suppresses drastically. The possible mechanism of the observed result is discussed. Sol-gol method was employed to synthesize Mg doped ZnO films on Si substrates. The annealing temperature-dependent structure and optical property of the produced samples were studied. An interesting result observed that that increasing Mg concentration in the studied samples induces the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of their near-band-edge (NBE) emission decrease and the defect related emission of the corresponding sample suppresses drastically. The possible mechanism of the observed result is discussed.