Periodic silver nanoparticles and nanohole arrays were prepared through tailored nanosphere lithography, and the optical properties of the fabricated nanostructures were investigated. First, a hexagonal close-packed monolayer comprising polystyrene (PS) nanospheres was made on a glass substrates as a mask. Then, the silver film was deposited in the voids between the nanospheres using an electron beam evaporator. After deposition, the PS nanospheres were removed, affording an array of silver nanoparticles. If the PS nanospheres were tailored through reactive-ion etching prior to the silver deposition step, the nanoparticles merged with the adjacent particles and produced periodic silver nanohole arrays. A series of nanostructures were prepared, and their surface plasmon resonance characteristics were analyzed by measuring the transmission spectra. The optical properties of the related nanostructures were numerically simulated using the finite difference time domain, the results of which were consistent with those of the experiments.